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DICK'S 

h 

ORIGINAL ALBUM VERSES 

AND 

ACROSTICS. 

CONTAINING ORIGINAL VERSES 



For Autograph Albums ; 
To Accompany Bouquets; 
For Birthdays; 

For Wooden, Tin, Crystal, Sil 
and Golden Weddings; 



For Album Dedications; 
For Philopena Forfeits ; 
For Congratulation ; 
For Valentines in General, and 
all Trades and Professions. 



A COLLECTION OF TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN 



LADIES' CHRISTIAN NAMES, 



WITH THEIR DERIVATION AND MEANING; 



AN ORIGINAL ACROSTIC WITH EACH NAME. 



NEW YORK: 
DICK & FITZGERALD, PUBLISHERS. 



,33 5~ 



Copyright 1879) by 

DICK & FITZGERALD. 

All Rights Reserved. 



PREFACE. 



Those who have never attempted to search for Verses 
appropriate for insertion in Autograph Albums, or for 
Anniversary Occasions, may deem this little book a super- 
fluous addition to the literature of the day; but the unhappy 
wight who has been requested to fill a page in the Album 
of some fair friend, and ransacks volume after volume in 
vain for suitable lines, will, in most cases, testify to the em- 
barrassment experienced in obtaining just what is wanted, 
especially if he be at all fastidious in making his selection. 

It is exactly this difficulty that generally causes Collections 
of Album-Verses to be so meagrely supplied with quota- 
tions really adapted to the purpose; and they usually in- 
clude much hackneyed matter, whose want of originality 
results in disappointment equally to Album writers and 
Album owners. 

The very large proportion of Original Verses, written on 
purpose for this work, must confer upon it, it is claimed, 
special advantages in regard to both novelty and aptitude; 
and, moreover, the selected pieces, having been gathered 
from a very wide and almost untrodden field of literature, 



4 PREFACE. 

may be said to claim in a great degree all the freshness of 

originality. 

The Acrostic Verses, all entirely original, present, in ad- 
dition to their legitimate object, a glossary of feminine 
names, with their derivation and signification, that will 
compare more than favorably with those given in the 
Standard Dictionaries or other compendious works. 

The Verses adapted for Dedication, Presentations, Birth- 
day, Wedding, and other Anniversaries, as well as the 
Valentines, have been, with few exceptions, written ex- 
pressly for this book; they are strikingly appropriate, and 
abound in beauty of sentiment and wittiness of expression. 

With these no small advantages, this book is unhesitat- 
ingly commended to the appreciation of all Album writers; 
and, through them, to the most discriminating and exact- 
ing portion of an intelligent public: 

THE FAIR SEX. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE. 

Verges for Dedicating Albums-. 7 

Original Verses for Albums 10 

Acrostics on Female Names 23 

Lines to Accompany Flowers „ 91 

Lines to Accompany Philopena Forfeits 94 

Verses for Birthday Congratulations 99 

Lines for Golden, Silver, Crystal, Tin and Wooden 

Weddings 103 

Valentine Verses 1 14 

Selected Verses for Albums . . 134 



DICK'S 

ORIGINAL ALBUM VERSES. 



ORIGINAL DEDICATORY VERSES. 

One of the most appropriate gifts that can be chosen for 
presentation to a lady is an album, in which may be gath- 
ered and preserved permanent mementos of her valued 
friends. The gift may be rendered still more pleasing if it 
contain an autograph dedication ; by this means the donor 
may possibly secure the enviable distinction of being first 
in the book, first in the field and first in the heart of the 
fair recipient. 

A dedication may consist merely of a few simple words, 
depending to some extent on the degree of intimacy exist- 
ing between the donor and recipient ; or a more decided 
form may be adopted, such as in the following original 
verses : 

DEDICATION FOR AN ALBUM. 

Here to these fair white pages soon will come 

Friends, with their admiration warm and fervent; 
Lovers who needs must write, their tongue being dumb ; 
Kinsfolk who ever petted you ; and some 

Admiring writer, like your humble servant. 
And some will quote from poets ; some will write 

Verses themselves — such verses, Heaven defend us ! 
And some will show their sense of proud delight 

By phrases sweet and words of length tremendous ; 



ORIGINAL DEDICATORY f 'ERSES. 

And one may write his name, with just a motto 

Arranged before it, as perhaps I ought to ; 

Making of verse a singular collection, 

All tokens of good-will and warm affection. 

But in the after days, when age creeps on, 

And some who'd written here are dead and gone, 

If you should on these pages chance to look, 

Do not despise the verses in the book ; 

Be blind to jangling rhymes and faults of style ; 

Let no rude critic their demerits touch ; 
And with one truth repress the ready smile : 

All those who wrote in this esteemed you much. 

THOS. DUNN ENGLISH 



DEDICATION FOR AN ALBUM. 

To earnest words and eloquent, 

To humor, wit and sentiment, 

To language where ideas throng 

To show the writer's friendship strong, 

To chastened thought and cultured sense, 

To simple lays without pretense, 

To brief quotations chosen apt, 

To hidden meanings quaintly wrapped, 

To all the efforts meant to please 

That come to pages such as these, 

To show how much friends hold you dear, 

I dedicate your album here. 



DEDICATION FOR AN ALBUM. 

In this fair garden plants shall grow, 
And in their freshness bud and blow — 
Plants to which love has beauty lent, 
And blossoms sweet of sentiment. 



ORIGINAL DEDICATORY VERSES. 

Pansies for thought shall here be set ; 

For fragrance, sober mignonette ; 

Lilies that stately stand erect ; 

Blue violets, sweeter in neglect ; 

White daisies, in serene repose ; 

The flaunting dahlia, blushing rose, 

And all of beautiful and fair, 

Tended with love and watched with care. 

But if this ground luxuriant feed 

And nurse to growth at times a weed — 

Some coarse effusion, that might be 

In spite of careful scrutiny — 

Root not the intruder out ; because 

IHllustrates the first of laws — 

The law of contrast ; though the ground 

Its presence mars, the flowers around 

More beautiful from that shall seem, 

And worth more honor and esteem. 



DEDICATION FOR AN ALBUM. 

While journeying through life's troubled sea, 

May this fair book a solace be ! 

Whene'er you turn its pages o'er, 

Then think of those — perhaps no more — 

Who, with their hearts so full of love, 

Invoked the Muses from above 

To aid them as they gladly penned 

A tribute to their valued friend. 

In leisure moments cast a look 

Upon the pages of this book ; 

When absent friends thy thoughts engage, 

Think of the one who fills this page. 



ORIGINAL VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 



ORIGINAL VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

Unless naturally endowed with the gift of impromptu 
writing, or a memory well stored with appropriate quota- 
tions, there are few moments in life more embarrassing 
than when requested, by a young lady whose esteem you 
value and desire to retain, to adorn a page in her album 
with something that will afford gratification to the reader 
and reflect credit on the writer. 

A young lady's album should be approached with all 
the respect due to its owner. In exhibiting it to any one 
of her friends, she virtually discloses in a great degree who 
and what are her chosen acquaintances. It must be re- 
membered, therefore, that whatever of sentiment, compli- 
ment, wit or humor is written there should not only be 
worthy of the fair owner's acceptance, but also awaken a 
proper degree of interest and approval in its perusal by 
others. 

What is written there cannot be erased ; and the great- 
est circumspection must be exercised to guard against a 
single word that even ill-natured persons might miscon- 
strue. 

" How many a shaft at random sent 
Finds mark the archer never meant !" 

Complimentary phrases should be strictly applicable. 
Fulsome praise, if exaggerated or used without due dis- 
crimination, becomes caricature ; and, if misapplied, may 
be ridiculous and even suggest a meaning the very oppo- 
site to that which was intended, 



ORIGINAL VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 11 

A young lady's album, which occupied a conspicuous 
place on the parlor table, was opened and read in her 
absence by a gentleman caller, whose love of truth was 
probably stronger than his respect for the fair sex. Imag- 
ine her mortification when she found on the last written 
page these lines : 

" I write not for your album, but to try 

How I your album writers can outvie. 

The task's not hard — it's mostly wretched dribble; 

And any shallow -pate as well can scribble. 

As neither they nor I write well enough, 

Better write nothing than such maudlin stuff!" 

The most mortifying part of it was that there was unfor- 
tunately more truth than poetry in the remarks. 

To avoid the possibility of such an unwelcome result, 
each contributor to the pages of an album should write 
the very best and most appropriate words that lie in his 
power and ability, and to this end the following original 
verses are offered. They will furnish either ready-made 
material, or they may be slightly altered by changing the 
names (introduced in italics), or in other points necessary 
to adapt them to their special objects. 



AN APPEAL. 

To be written by the owner of an album on its first page. 

Kind friends, I beg that you will fill 

This book with tokens of good-will. 

If on my mission I'd succeed, 

A word from every friend I'll need. 

Here all may bow at friendship's shrine — 

Here all that will may write a line. 

Give me mementos that will tell 

The names of those who wish me well, 



12 ORIGINAL VERSES EOR ALBUMS. 

I hope, indeed, that every one 

Will fill a page, as I have done; 

And take the trouble and the time 

To write their thoughts, in prose or rhyme; 

So that I can, whate'er befall, 

The names of all my friends recall. 



LINES FOR AN ALBUM. 
Here, a line without a thought; 
There, a notion overwrought; 
Here, some panegyric strong; 
There, a verse with metre wrong. 
That's the poetry awry 
Most of album poets try — 
Come to think of it, so do I. 



AN APOLOGY. 
With the honestest intention I sat down to write some metre, 
To transcribe into your album for your special delectation. 
And my purpose was to make it more than Moore's or 
Byron's sweeter, 
Till you'd scream whene 'er you read it with excess of 
admiration. 
So I squared me to the paper on my table, writing steady 
Words and words and words and words, until I'd robbed 
the dictionary 
Of a host of polysyllables that there stood picked and ready, 
And together made a poem that was singular — yea, very ! 
But you see, when it was finished, and I sat me down and 
read it, 
It was such a mass of nonsense and so puzzled my poor 
head, 
That I burned it in a hurry, as the way to save my credit — 
And I scribble in your album this apology instead. 

THOS. DUNN ENGLISH. 



ORIGINAL VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 13 

TO A LADY. 

Within these pages — where have come before 
Luckless adventurers on the sea of verse, 

Their wrecks strewed thickly on an adverse shore — 
I come, perchance to meet a fate much worse. 

For, having trophies of the kind enough, 

The mistress of this place might give my stuff 

A poor reception. Lest she cast away 

The verse I write, I close my feeble lay. 



LINES FOR AN ALBUM. 

Some precious stones, when polished by the art 
Of cunning workmen, in collections lie; 

But quick their beauties to existence start 

When skill reveals their lustre strong and high. 

Such gems are here, but mostly cruder stuff; 

Lacking all polish, natural and rough. 

And, ranged in order here, folk, when they see 'em, 

Say this no casket is, but a museum ! 

And mid the diamonds of your rare collection 

I place this agate rough, for your inspection; 

The best I have, and offered with good-will — 

It were full polished had I owned the skill. 



A FLORAL TRIBUTE. 
Each to your chaplet brings a flower, 
To please you in an idle hour. 
Some bring a violet, some a rose; 
Some poppy blossoms, for repose; 
Some lilies white, some eglantine, 
And some the climbing passion-vine. 
The simplest blossom suits me best: 
So here's my primrose with the rest. 

THOS. DUNN ENGLISH. 



ORIGINAL VERSES EOR ALBUMS. - 

VERSE FOR AN ALBUM. 

Easy upon this spotless page to write — 
The jet-black letters show so on the white. 
Less easy (there the laugh's at my expense) 
To write four lines that shall be filled with sense. 



TO A LADY. 



When in the skies at night the yellow moon 
Attended by her brilliant train appears, 

And moves accordant to the glorious tune 

Wrought from the music of the heavenly spheres, 

Far in the distance see some little star — 

Scarce showing light among the rest around, 
Yet of the rest a needful portion found — 

Such, lady, midst the rest my verses are. 



AN APOLOGY. 



Why set me to the task of writing rhyme 

And name no subject ? I but think of one 
That I would fain have treated many a time, 

And always ended ere I well begun — 
Which was the star-like, luminous, wondrous eyes 

Of her who owns this book. Now in that theme 
Such store of wealth for poetry there lies 

That thoughts sublime within one's spirit gleam 
Natural as sunlight; yet I dare not try. 

To do it justice I should fill this book, 
And after that more volumes: and if I 

Dared on those liquid eyes to frequent look — 
Within their depths such inspiration lurks — 
I'd need a spacious hall to hold my works, 



ORIGINAL VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 15 

VERSE FOR AN ALBUM. 

I write because I'm asked to write; 
But lacking power to tell how much 
Your many charms my feelings touch, 

I merely spoil these pages white 

With five poor lines in metre light. 



FOR AN AUTOGRAPH. 

My autograph ? Why, certainly, my dear; 

I wish its market value was more clear. 

You still should have it, for my will is good— 

I'd give a kingdom to you if I could. 

What more could she have purchased for a smile, 

That other queenly sorceress of the Nile ? 

D. l. p. 



RHYMES FOR AN ALBUM. 
If e'er, by wine or fancy fired, 
A witling thinks that he's inspired — 
Mistaking for a poet's vein 
The itching of a rhyme-fed brain — 
His pen he grasps, his subject chooses, 
Then whips him down a brace of Muses; 
Scales all Parnassus with his rhymes, 
And wonders with what ease he climbs. 
He writes with ease to show his breeding — 
Easy to write, but wretched stuff for reading. 



VERSE FOR AN ALBUM 

Accept, dear friend, the trifle that I write — 
The simple tribute of a faithful wight 
Who knows thy worth, and far esteems it more 
Than the rich diamond from Golconda's store. 



16 ORIGINAL VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

TO A LADY. 
Here, on a page unsoiled, these lines you see, 
Wherein you mark no show of brilliancy; 
But he who on thy unsoiled heart may write 
The lines of love, shall find them glowing- bright, 
Making his life one course of dazzling light. 



AN APOLOGY. 
This album me was sent to, 
That I a short memento 
Should write here — and invent, too ! 
The wrong man, sure, they went to, 
And so I'm not content to — 
Although at first I meant to; 
For though the task I bent to, 
The Muses whom I went to 
Me naught of metre lent to, 
My woe indifferent to; 
And words (sad incident, too) 
In jingling nonsense blent, too. 



VERSE FOR AN ALBUM. 
A single blossom here I lay 
As portion of your fine bouquet. 
No blushing rose, nor lily fine, 
Nor violet sweet, nor eglantine — 
A simple daisy, this, of mine. 



VERSE FOR AN ALBUM. 

Ask me for verses ! That request a joke is. 

I never rhymed but what I sore repented. 
Iambuses and anapests and trochees, 

Dactyls and such, but drive me half demented. 

That makes five lines — pray rest with those contented. 



ORIGINAL VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 17 

VERSES FOR AN ALBUM. 

Those who have written here before 
Have sung thy praises o'er and o'er; 
And while the nattering verse they made, 
They doubtless felt the words they said. 

I lack the power that they possessed ; 
I stand in weakness here confessed; 
Powerless my feelings to reveal, 
I say much less than what I feel. 



LINES FOR AN ALBUM. 

Job, patient under trouble's trammels, 
Although he lost both cash and kine, 
And horses, donkeys, sheep and camels; 

But had he such a task as mine — 
To write some verses those beside 
Of others better qualified — 
And found he'd tried a business which 
Needed bright thoughts and language rich, 
While conscious of possessing neither — ■ 
Job, as a model, wouldn't be there. 



LINES FOR AN ALBUM. 

A lady asks a verse or so — 

And anything will suit, you see, 
If genius in the lines should flow, 

Warmth, love, originality, 
Well-chosen words, harmonious rhythm, 
A flow of music in and with 'em. 
Well, here the lines are. For the rest — 
The less about them said, the best. 



18 ORIGINAL VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

AN APOLOGY. 

Excuse if I assure you I can never 

Write what were fitting for your fine anthology — 

I should break down in making the endeavor. 
I'd better practice medicine, law, theology, 
Knowing neither much — take that for my apology 



AN AUTOGRAPH. 

Amid so many poems fine 
Forbid I placed poor verse of mine; 
Yet, lest my churlishness you blame, 
I write this quatrain and my name. 



TO A YOUNG LADY. 

' Do you," said she, the other day, 
' In earnest love me, as you say ? 

Or are .those tender words applied 

Alike to fifty girls beside ?" 

'Dear, cruel girl," cried I, "forbear; 
For by those eyes, those lips, I swear 
(Such oath before I never took). 
I've sworn ! Now let me kiss the book !" 



AN APOLOGY. 
I would add a fresh flower to the varied bouquet 
That blushes and blooms in these pages to-day; 
But I fear that my efforts could only succeed 
In producing a coarse and a valueless weed 
That some gardener — cold critic, from pity exempt — 
Might uproot, and then throw it aside with contempt. 



ORIGINAL VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

TO A LADY. 

Seek no verses from my pen; 
I'm not of your rhyming men — 

Never poet's frenzy fired me. 
If I should succeed so far 
As these lines with rhymes to mar, 

Tis because your charms inspired me. 



TO A LADY. 



Accept, fair lady, from thy humble friend, 
The wish that joy thy footsteps may attend; 
£Jor scorn the verse which honest warmth inspires, 
When friendship animates and beauty fires. 



FOR AN ALBUM. 

Fond Memory, come and hover o'er 

This album page of my fair friend; 
Enrich her from thy precious store, 

And happy recollections send. 
If on this page she chance to gaze 

In years to come — where'er she be — ■ 
Tell her of earlier happy days, 

And bring her back one thought of me. 



EPIGRAM FOR AN ALBUM. 

When I peruse the silly lines 

Written by swains demented, 
I sigh me for the good old times 
When knightly charge took place of rhymes, 

And albums weren't invented. 



ORIGINAL VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

VERSES FOR AN ALBUM. 

I fain would embellish this page 

With the grandest effusions of verse; 

Such thoughts as would surely attention engage- 
Expressions both witty and terse. 

To others the palm I must yieLd 

For ornate and poetical skill; 
I only can claim a more limited field — 

Not, however, for want of the will. 

You must e'en take the will for the deed — 

The Muses to me are unkind. 
I can only most heartily wish you God-speed; 

May you ever true happiness find. • 



VERSE FOR AN ALBUM. 

The wheel of fortune soon will show 
The fate of mortals here below. 
Whate'er the fate in store for me, 
It cannot change my love for thee. 



TO JULIA. 

Fair Julia tells me I must write — 

At her command I'd fain indite; 

But a roguish glance from her merry eye 

Dispels my Muse, and I dare not try. 

Those laughing orbs are a poet's theme, 

And e'en a hermit of them might dream; 

But to sing aright of one wee look 

Would crowd this page — yes, fill this book. 



ORIGINAL VERSES FOR ALBUMS. ' 21 

EPIGRAM FOR AN ALBUM. 

For album scribblers I feel grieved — 

Such nonsense oft is said. 
One half will never be believed, 

The other never read. 



LINES WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM. 

Will I not in your album write ? 

Yes, Anne, on this spotless page 
The Muse may trace in colors bright 

Some lesson worthy of a sage. 
'Tis not in heavy tomes alone 
That wisdom's maxims may be known. 

The pale star, fading in the skies, 
May preach a sermon to the heart; 

The flower that blossoms and then dies 
May tell how loved ones meet and part; 

The streams meand'ring to the sea 

May guide us to eternity. 

Nought in this lowdy world of ours 
But doth a wholesome lesson teach : 

The winter's snows, the summer's flowers, 
Some name upon the sandy beach, 

Which solitary fancy traces, 

And the returning wave effaces. 

Then why, upon this virgin page, 
May not the Muse, in simple lines, 

Instruct the heart, the mind engage; 
Tell you what elevates, refines 

The maiden's soul, her sympathies— 

What chastens, guides and purifies ? 



22 ORIGINAL VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

For, if there be a Muse profane, 

That issues from the groves of earth 

And sings of things as false and vain 
As is the planet of her birth, 

There is another, heaven-born, bright, 

Like her own sphere, all truth and light. 

That Muse, upon this album's page, 

Leaves as a legacy this verse, 
Which in life's spring-tide and old age 
The heart may to itself rehearse: 
"The beautiful things of earth are given — 
Pledges of a more beautiful heaven." 



TO THE PAGE OF AN ALBUM. 

Fair, spotless leaf, thou emblem pure 

Of innocence, beware; 
Nor think thy beauty lives secure — ■ 

'Tis dang'rous to be fair. 

Some wanton pen may scrawl thee o'er 

And blot thy virgin face; 
And whiteness, deem'd thy praise before, 

May turn to thy disgrace. 

By thee shall idle, vacant hearts 

This useful moral learn: 
That, unemployed, the brightest parts 

To vice and folly turn. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 



The word " acrostic " is derived from the Greek, 
stichos, meaning "first letter verse." The term was first 
applied to the verses of the Erythroean Sibyl, written on 
leaves. These prophecies were excessively obscure, but 
so contrived that when the leaves were sorted and laid in 
order their initial letters always made a word. Acrostic 
poetry among the Hebrews consisted of twenty-two lines 
or stanzas, beginning with the letters of the alphabet in 
succession; as, for example, Psalm cxix., as it is in the 
original Hebrew. 

A neatly expressed acrostic is very appropriate in an 
album, the initials of the acrostic forming the Christian 
name of its owner. In the selection of an acrostic, not 
only should the name, but also the subject matter of the 
verses, be adapted so as to be applicable to the owner of 
the album. It will not be suitable to address a black-eyed 
acrostic to a blue-eyed lady; nor should it expatiate on the 
grand proportions of a Roman nose when the young lady's is 
charmingly retrousse. The unities must be preserved. 

The acrostics here introduced are all original and written 
expressly for this work. The list of names includes all that 
are met with every day, and a great many more that, 
though not in common use, are known to exist in actual 
life. The derivation of each name and its signification are 
given, as far as can be ascertained or gathered from the 
best authorities. The term "diminutive" does not signify 
a contraction, but a familiar or pet form of a name, such 
as Sally for Sarah. 



24 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

ABBIE. 

DIMINUTIVE OF ABIGAIL. 

A sweetness in the air when thou art near, 
B orn of thy beauty and thy wondrous grace, 
B reaks on the senses and pervades the place. 
I n this all those who know thee well agree; 
E ven thy rivals join in praising thee. 



ABIGAIL. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: JOY OF MY FATHER. 

A rmed with a sense of virtuous grace, 

B eautiful in her face and form; 

I cy to vice, to virtue warm. 

G rave thoughts at moments cross her face, 

A s though she held of little worth, 

I n all that please the human race, 

L ove, honors, and such dross of earth. 



ADA. 

ANOTHER FORM OF EDITH. 

A 11 bless thee, lacty, for thy chiefest charm, 
D elightful innocence, that shields from harm, 
A nd makes detraction at thy sight disarm. 



ADELA. 

OLD GERMAN. 

A 11 who admire are not the friends they seem; 
D istrust the swain who makes thy face his theme, 
E ver giving flattery, guiltless of esteem. 
L ove on the soul more than the body feeds, 
A nd beauty such as thine no trumpet needs. 



Original acrostics. 25 

ADELAIDE. 

OLD GERMAN. DERIVED FROM ADELA. 

A nd now the lady comes without a foe: 

D elight and innocence attend her ways; 

E nvy and hate, she coming, quickly go, 

L earning they cannot hope to check her praise; 

A nd where her smiles upon beholders blaze 

I n all their splendor, clouds upon the skies 

D isperse; and, be there sun or not, bright rays 

E nlighten all things round her through her eyes. 



ADELINE. 

A FRENCH FORM OF ADELA. 

A t birth the fate that came to thee 
D ecreed the charm of modesty; 
E rfeompassed thee with beauty rare, 
L ove, hovering o'er thy cradla there. 
I f all with praise thy steps pursue, 
N oting thy face take deeper hue, 
E ndure it bravely — 'tis thy due. 



AGATHA. 

:. signifies: 



A mple her mental force, her moral worth; 

G rand in her beauty 'mid the fair of earth, 

A crowning charm is lacking to complete 

T he perfect woman, adorably sweet: 

H aving love's gospel preached within her heart 

A dditional beauty into life would start, 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
AGNES. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: CHASTE, PURE. 

A bove them all the damsel stands; 
G ladly her worshippers draw near. 
N ot the regard which gold commands 
E nshrines her for our homage here — 
S weetness and beauty make her dear. 



ALBERTA. 

OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: ILLUSTRIOUS. FEMININE OF ALBERT. 

A re eyes of thine that flash and blaze 
L ess kind than those of duller rays ? 
B earn they in splendor only then, 
E ntreating, not consoling men ? 
R eply, if cruel thee they call; 
T ell them the star that shines for all 
A bandons love for general praise. 



ALEXANDRA. 



:. SIGNIFIES: A SHIELD OR DEFENCE. FEMININE OF 
ALEXANDER. 

A ccept the homage of thy friends around, 
L ady whose life so beautiful is found, 
E quailing the actions, sinless, undefiled, 
X avier, the stern, and Fenelon, the mild, 
A ssigned for saints. None may a fault detect, 
N or to thy pure and blameless ways object. 
D iana's coldness with her charms combined, 
R esponsive to the chasteness of thy mind — 
A richer grace one day true love may find. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 27 

ALICE. 

OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: NOBLE. 

A re the old goddesses now things of earth, 

L eaving Olympus for a lower sphere ? 

I i so, then here is one of heavenly birth 

C ome to our earth to bless adorers here — 

E ach heart a temple where is hymned her worth. 



ALMIRA. 

ARABIC. SIGNIFIES: THE LOFTY, A PRINCESS. • 

A round thy life be happiness forever; 
L ess from thy beauty, which in time may fade; 
M ore from the consciousness of good endeavor 
I n a sweet life that ne'er to wrong has swayed. 
R ed lips and sparkling eyes may pass away; 
A fame that virtue makes defies decay. 



ALTHEA. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: A HEALER. 

A h ! beautiful in all men's eyes, 
L ove's darts the damsel gay defies. 
T hey wonder much and long that she 
H eld harmless of those darts should be. 
E xpect her fate in time to see, 
A nd love assume the mastery. 



AMABEL. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: LOVABLE, AMIABLE. 

A rose, the favorite flower of lovers, 
M ade beautiful by nature's might, 
A round whose petals fragrance hovers, 
B lesses more senses than the sight; 
E mblem in that may gazers see, 
L oved and admired by all, of thee. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
AMANDA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: WORTHY TO BE LOVED. 

A ccept this tribute, though its weakness cause 

M irth to your friends, if so their minds incline; 

A ttribute failure to the proper cause- 

N ot to intent, but lack of fire divine. 

D isdain me not. What better could be done ? 

A rt has no power to picture right the sun. 



AMELIA. 

OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: INDUSTRIOUS. 

A s the poor bird, when by the fowler caught, 
M akes piteous plaint his captor's heart to move, 
E ven so this pleading verse of mine is wrought — ■ 
L ove-caught as I am — that thy heart may prove 
I n my case merciful. If not, bestow 
A 11 friendship that thou hast, to ease my woe. 



AMY. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: BELOVED. 

A rtless in thought, and hence thy manner free; 
M odest of mien, yet filled with maiden glee; 
Y outh, beauty, innocence combine in thee. 



ANN. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: GRACE; THE SAME AS HANNAH. 

A h ! were all women of thy noble strain, 
N ot of thy sex might bearded men complain, 
N or cynics dare affect for them disdain. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 29 

ANNA. 

LATIN FORM OF ANN. 

A zure the skies above you spread, 
N oon's lustre ever round your head, 
N o thorns within the path you tread, 
A nd peace be yours till life be sped. 



ANNABEL. 
FRENCH, signifies : beautiful anna. {See note, page 32.) 
A h ! never in the sylvan wild was met 
N ymph of such witching grace and modest air; 
N or of our modern maidens, fairer yet 
A nd sweeter than the nymphs, is one more fair; 
B ut in her mind her chiefest beauty lies, % 
E xcelling far her features and her air — 
L ove, tenderness and duty dwelling there. 



ANNIE. 
diminutive of anna. 
A rtless and tender, honest and sincere, 
N o guide but duty in thy chosen sphere, 
N o petty passions in thy bosom rise; 
I n that thy power to win admirers lies, 
E ntrancing more than even thy lovely eyes. 



ANTOINETTE. 

FRENCH. FEMININE DIMINUTIVE OF ANTHONY. 

A dventure not in love, for there 

N o harvest shall you reap but care; 

T he loving and the loved alike 

n barbed points of sorrow strike; 

1 f loving, filled with jealous pain, 
N or suffering less if loved again. 
E ase, quiet and content we see 

T hrong in the heart from passion free; 
T he heart where love shall entrance make 
E ase, quiet and content forsake. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
ARABELLA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: A BEAUTIFUL ALTAR. 

A lady fair and kind and true, 

R eceiving honors justly due, 

A nd winning hearts on every side 

B y simple force of merits tried. 

E nvy, that strikes at most we see, 

L acks courage for attack on thee, 

L est those who heard might rise in wrath 

A nd slay her in her crooked path. 



ASENATH. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: DEVOTED TO NEITHER. 

A broad they tell us of an image which , 

S tands in a heathen temple's outer niche; 

E ach one who passes kneels, and all these lay 

N ear it their offering ere they go away; 

A nd then the image gently bends, as though 

T he homage it would own, and presents rich. 

H ere I these verses give, bend thou or no. 



AUGUSTA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: IMPERIAL. FEMININE OF AUGUSTUS. 

A rose in beauty most excels 

U nder a clear and sunny sky; 

G row odorless the asphodels 

U ntil the cloud has hurried by; 

S o not the lady of these lines: 

T he same, if fortune frown or shine; 

A nd sweet, though adverse fate incline, 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 31 

BABETTE. 

FRENCH DIMINUTIVE OF ELIZABETH. 

B y greenest meadows, where the daisies grow, 

A nd buttercups bedeck with gold the grass, 

B abbling and foaming, crystal streamlets flow, 

E nchanting music making as they pass; 

T heir voices are but discord matched with hers 

T hat so the heart within her hearers stirs, 

E ntranced, they grow from friends to worshippers. 



BARBARA. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES : FOREIGN. 

B lest is this lady, whose figure and face 

A vision present us of beauty and grace, 

R evealing attractions that fetter us fast 

B y the form which the Maker has faultlessly cast; 

A nd yet as the praise of admirers they gain, 

R effect in some years they will pass from the place, 

A nd only remembrance of beauty remain. 



BEATRICE. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: MAKING HAPPY. 

B right be thy future, lady fair; 
Entrancing bliss thy steps attend; 
A holy calm be ever there, 
T o all thy life new joy to lend. 
R osy thy morns, serene thy nights; 
I n all thy doings sweet delights; 
C onferring on thee to the end 
E ach joy that happiness invites, 



32 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

BELLA. 

ITALIAN. SIGNIFIES: BEAUTIFUL.* 

B elieve no flatterer who would win thy heart, 
E asily duped, he thinks, by verse well-skilled, 
L ow-toned and feigning, made more sweet by art; 
L earn that thy charms by time may yet be chilled, 
A nd be thy cup of joy by duty filled. 



BENEDICTA. 



LATIN. SIGNIFIES: BLESSED; WELL SPOKEN OF. F 
OF BENEDICT. 

B ravely thy charms, by dress bedecked, 

E ncompass thee with wondering eyes, 

N ever to lack in fond respect, 

E ver to fill with glad surprise. 

D esire to please attraction lends, 

I nspiring grace and manner fine; 

C ould I among thy many friends 

T ake rank as chief, my purpose ends, 

A nd joy surpassing then were mine. 



BERTHA. 

OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: BEAUTIFUL; BRIGHT. 

B orn beneath a lucky star, 

E minent thy beauties are, 

R ising over those around 

T o a height we rarely see; 

H appiness the most profound 

A 11 who know thee wish for thee. 

* Bella, or its contraction, Bel, is frequently added to another name, to which 
it then imparts the sense of " beautiful;" as Floribel, from "flora," a flower, and 
"bel," beautiful. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
BESSIE. 

DIMINUTIVE OF ELIZABETH. 

B lessed be as maid or wife — 

E asy, honored be thy life; 

S weet thy fate, as thou art sweet; 

S low to death thy passing feet; 

I n thy future let there be 

E very good to welcome thee. 



BLANCHE. 

FRENCH. SIGNIFIES : WHITE. 

B orn of the zephyr, and airy, 

L ight-footed she as a fairy; 

A rtless and truthful and tender, 

N one dare molest or offend her; 

C lad in a modesty rarest, 

H eld of her sisters the fairest, 

E very good angel defend her. 



BONNIBEL. 

FRENCH. SIGNIFIES : GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL. 

B onnibel boasts of no beauty 

ver devotion to duty; 

N evertheless none are fairer, 

N one have charms sweeter or rarer; 

1 f she excel in endeavor, 

B looming in goodness forever, 
E vermore in her sweet graces 
Love every loveliness traces. 



34 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

BRIDGET. 

CELTIC. SIGNIFIES: STRENGTH. 

B lessed the saint from whom they took thy name, 
R eceiving glory through the cross she bore; 
I n thee her pattern followed without blame — 
D ross more in thee, and from such earthy store 
G aining less worship, but loved far the more; 
E ver keep her in view till passes breath — 
T hus hold our love in life, and God's in death. 



CAMILLA. 



LATIN. SIGNIPJES: ATTENDANT AT A SACRIFICE. FEMININE 
OF CAMILLUS. 

C aught by no light of folly, night or day, 

A nd singeing not the wings of thy pure thought; 

M arked by devotion to the truth alway, 

I n this thy pleasure thou hast wisely sought, 

L ooking around for happiness in naught 

L ess light than duty, nevertheless they own 

A charm within thy face might rest alone. 



CAROLINE. 

OLD GERMAN. FEMININE OF CAROLUS, THE LATIN OF CHARLES. 

C ould metre serve to show us here 
A woman to her circle dear, 
R isen above the common kind, 

r queen by beauty, grace and mind 
L oving and loved by all who lie 

1 n the wide compass of her eye, 
N ot even then my pen could tell 

E ach charm the lady wears so well. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS, 35 

CATHERINE. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: PURE. 

C harming the eye with visible eloquence, 

A being of beauty, grace and modest sense; 

T hine is a heart, they tell me, fancy free — 

H ow blest the one who wins it, then, shall be ! 

E ve has no fairer daughter left than thou; 

R ose-colored fall the shadows on thy brow. 

I n future time, when years thy beauties fade — 

N eeds must — then shall the friends around thee now 

E ndure through all, firm by thy virtues made. 



CECILIA. 

LATIN. FEMININE OF CECIL. 

C hains forged by charms like thine wear long, 

E ndure the strain and grow rqpre strong; 

C hains forged by wit and sense like thine 

I n pride are worn, and brightly shine. 

L et not thy sense of this incline 

I n wanton will to show thy power — 

A pitying heart is beauty's richest dower. 



CHARITY. 

ENGLISH. SIGNIFIES: KINDNESS OF HEART. 

C herry lips and sparkling eyes, 
H air in glossy locks that lies, 
A re attractive, we confess, 
R arely made the world to bless, 
I f combined with artlessness; 
T hese unite to make thee fair, 
Y ielding beauty past compare. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
CHARLOTTE. 

OLD GERMAN. FEMININE OF CHARLES. 

C ast in a mould not used again, 

H eld perfect of its kind, was she; 

A nd hence such praise her charms obtain, 

R enowned for their rare symmetry. 

L ess by her face, than by the arts 

O f innocence born, she won our hearts, 

T hen tossed them carelessly away — 

T hose playthings of an idle day — 

E lated as they round her lay. 



CHLOE. 

GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: BLOOMING; A GREEN HERB. 

C harming, without a thought to charm; 

H eart-whole herself, who breaks our hearts, 

L iving a life devoid of arts, 

O n such a niche our heads above, 

E xalted past the reach of harm. 



CHRISTINA. 

GERMAN. FEMININE OF CHRISTIAN. 

C ome, Hope — come, Frankness ! crown her now 

H igh-priestess in your temples fair; 

R esplendent beauty on her brow, 

I nviting graces in her air. 

S he knows no guile, she feels no fear; 

T he courage born of virtue rare 

I nvests her with a cuirass strong, 

N ot made to yield to those who dare — 

A rmor defying shafts of wrong. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 37 

CICELY. 

ANOTHER FORM OF CECILIA. 

C ome where the mocking-bird, on starry nights, 
I n varied notes, with music fills the air; 
C ome where all insects chirp their wild delights, 
E nchanting with the sounds the hearers there; 
L et me hear these — I find them sweet to hear — 
Y et sweeter falls thy name upon mine ear. 

CLARA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES : BRIGHT, ILLUSTRIOUS. 

C harming all hearts by her graces, 
L ove in her mind leaves no traces; 
A rmed with a keen sense of honor, 
R ight, like a crown, rests upon her: 
A ptly my verses have drawn her. 

CLARIBEL. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL. 

C heerful, yet modest; prudent, and yet kind; 
L ovely in face and lovelier in mind; 
A kindly fate, which is her virtue's due, 
R oses continual in her path shall strew. 
I mpulsive, with the keenest sense of right, 
B y conscience pointed to an inward light; 
E arnest of purpose, resolute of will, 
L ove yet shall make her life more perfect still. 

CLARICE. 

A VARIATION OF CLARA. 

C ull me a nosegay sweet, 
L ong for her honor meet; 
A violet, purplish blue; 
R ose of a delicate hue, 
Ivy that dew has wept, 
C lematis; then do you 
E ntreat her to accept. 



38 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

CLARISSA. 

A VARIATION OF CLARA. 

C ome forth and see my lady walk; 

L isten enraptured to her talk; 

A nd see the charms that hearts have won 

R ise in their splendor, like the sun. 

I license they daily to her bring, 

Sweet words, in accents soft and tender; 

S wift may propitious heaven send her 

A shield against the flatterer's sting. 



CLAUDIA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: LAME. FEMININE OF CLAUDIUS. 

C hary of smiles, yet where her smiling falls 
L ove upward springs and roses like to grow; 
A ready sympathy within her calls 
U nto her heart, which never answers " No." 
D elighted if the suffering she may aid, 
I n simple tenderness is wrapped the maid, 
A nd modest beauty o'er her casts its glow. 



CLEMENCE. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES : GENTLENESS, MILDNESS. 

C allous are some to charms of womankind, 

L eft high and dry when on love's sea they sailed; 

E mbracing folly, to the true life blind. 

M aid, had they seen thee, nothing had availed; 

E nding assumed indifference as the light 

N ew-leaping from those modest eyes of thine 

C ame full upon them, in their own despite 

E agerly they had worshipped at thy shrine. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 39 

CLOTILDA. 

ANGLO-SAXON. 

C ome in the morning, when the swallows go; 
L eave in the evening, when the swallows come — 

r come not; since so fierce thy beauty's glow, 
T he sun will rob it of its mischief some. 

1 n sunlight is thy proper dwelling-place, t 
L osing by the compare some of thy light, 

D angerous to those who gaze upon thy face; 
A nd yet when thou art absent comes the night. 



CORA. 



C onfess 'tis not the charm of youth 
O nly resistless sway confers; 
R ests some on that, but more on truth, 
A nd virtue sweet, that power of hers. 



CORDELIA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: HAVING A GOOD HEART. 

C ircled by partners in the joyous dance, 

r busy with the duty of the day, 

R osy with every hope thy countenance. 
D elight and pleasure linger in thy way. 
E ver may this be so; but if for thee 
Life bring its sorrow, think of this alone: 

1 n duty done some solace we may see, 

A nd she who knows no woe, no joy has known. 



40 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS, 

CONSTANCE. 

LATIN". SIGNIFIES: FIRMNESS, CONSTANCY, 

C ourted much and flattered more, 
O wning beauty, owning grace, 
N ever modest maiden wore 
S weeter air or fairer face. 
T ried by all to make her vain, 
A s they strive her love to gain; 
N ow our wonder comes that she 
C an beneath that test remain 
E ver free from vanity. 



CORNELIA. 

LATIN. FEMININE OF CORNELIUS. 

C aressed in childhood, petted in thy youth, 

n floods of flattery borne in maiden years, 
R etaining through it all thy simple truth, 

N o silly vanity in thee appears, 

E ver the same, and guileless and sincere, 

L ess wonderful thy beauty — matchless here 

1 n all that makes it beauty — than thy grace 
A nd innocence, transfiguring form and face. 



DAISY. 

ENGLISH. 



D emand not why I must her praise rehearse, 

A nd homage proffer to her loveliness 

I n fervid language, though in feeble verse: 

S ummon me not excuses to express; 

You see her charms — why, how can I say less ? 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 41 

DAPHNE. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: A LAUREL TREE. 

D elight attend thee, innocent delight, 

A nd make thy loveliness intenser still — 

P ure that, as thou art pure, in all men's sight — 

H aving no wrongful thoughts thy life to chill, 

N or thoughtless ways detraction to invite; 

E ver thy present sweet, thy future bright. 



DEBORAH. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: A BEE. 

D ark be the fate of those who would assail, 
E nvious of goodness which in thee appears, 
B y feigned disdaining or by slanderous tale, 
O r who by arrogance may cause thee tears. 
R efined thy manner, beautiful thy face; 
A ttended thou by calm and witching grace, 
H eightening thy beauties by its gauzy veil. 



DELIA. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: AN INHABITANT OF DELOS. 

D eem not I natter should I say 
E nvy can never injure thee;- 
L ove, in excess of fondness, may 
I nvest thee with all charms that be, 
A nd yet no word too much may say. 



42 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS, 

DIANA. 

LATIN. NAME OF A ROMAN GODDESS. 

D espair not of the future, lady fair; 

I n that thy surest comfort shall be found; 

A censer bearing incense shall be there. 

N one who have known thee but will tribute bear, 

A nd love, from all worth loving, hedge thee round. 



DINORAH. 



D eny thy heart no fondness that it would; 

I mpose no bonds on innocent desire; 

N one censure that thy charms they must admire, 

O r that thy merits can not be withstood; 

R esolve to give thy honest impulse way, 

A nd tenderness, that always in thee lay, 

H old it no shame to let it have full sway. 



DIONA. 

DIMINUTIVE OF DIONYSIA. 

D oomed to become her worshipper, 
I n bonds, I dare not break the chain. 
O f her regard no mark I gain, 
N o kindly smile or glance from her, 
A nd yet her captive I remain. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 43 

DIONYSIA. 

SIGNIFIES: BELONGING TO BACCHUS. FEMININE OF 
DIONYSIUS. 

D istinguished from all maidens near 
I n all that makes thy beauty rare, 

f such as poets love to sing, 

N oted for charm in face and air, 
Y et ever modest and sincere. 
"S weets to the sweet" — and so I bring 

1 n friendship warm my offering, 
A nd lay it on thy altar here. 



DOLABELLA. 



ITALIAN. SIGNIFIES: A SORROWING BEAUTY. 

D istrust me not because I send 

O f simple verse a tribute free, 

L ess nattering than some rhymes may be, 

A s though the words were wrung from me 

B y beauty, worth and modesty. 

E xtravagance of compliment 

L ove ever to the lover lent; 

L ess warmth, but equal truth, attend 

A n honest tribute from a friend. 



DOMINICA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: BELONGING TO THE LORD. 

D espise not these my rhymes, since they are rude, 

r made by one who has but little skill; 
M y verse, though in its execution crude, 

1 s born of beauty, friendship and good-will. 
N ot thy sweet beauty, feeding so the eye, 

I nspires me thus the metric lyre to try; 
C harmed by thy voice, so musically low, 
A bard must praise thee, if he would or no. 



44 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

DORA* 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES : A GIFT. ALSO A CONTRACTION OF DOROTHY. 

D ear to her friends for beauty, wit and sense; 
O f modest manner, guiltless of pretence; 
R ising above all others grouped around, 
A single palm tree in the desert ground. 



DORCAS. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: A GAZELLE. 

D etraction may not harm her, 

O r envy's wiles alarm her; 

R esistless in her beauty, 

C lad in a robe of duty, 

A nd crowned by graces tender, 

S ure friends may heaven send her. 



DOROTHY. 



GREEK. SIGNIFIES: THE GIFT OF GOD; OR, DEDICATED TO 
GOD. AN INVERTED FORM OF THEODORA. 

D ark clouds avoid thee; may thy footsteps be 

O n roses only; always youth for thee — 

R esisting time, or softening its decay. 

O f thy companions in thy future way, 

T hink only as thy friends — could they be less, 

H aving full knowledge of thy loveliness, 

Y outh and a modest mien, those graces three ? 

* Dora, signifying "gift," is frequently used as a suffix; as, Eudora, lucky or 
fortunate gift 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 45 

DRUSILLA. 

LATIN. 

D eal with her, Fate, but not blindly — 

R aining all good on her kindly. 

U nder a roof made of roses, 

S ee where the lady reposes; 

I n her soft slumber a vision 

L ights life with colors Elysian; 

L et her awake to find real 

A 11 that in sleep is ideal. 



EDITH. 

OLD ENGLISH. SIGNIFIES: HAPPINESS; RICH GIFT. 

E xcelling others in thy face and form; 
D estined to know no winter and no storm 
I n thy sweet life; to have but little care 
T hrough thy existence, lady young and fair; 
H ow happy he who shall thy fortune share ! 



EDNA. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: PLEASURE. 

E nthroned within our " heart of hearts," 
D eem not the fact has made her vain, 
N or when her beauty hence departs 
A 11 now her slaves will break the chain. 



EGERIA. 

GREEK. THE NAME OF A COUNTRY. 

E nd, lady, now thy way of cold disdain; 

G rant those who worship thee some kindly smiles, 

E lse drop the beauty which to woe beguiles; 

R eveal more pity for thy victim's pains; 

I n wantonness of power some wrong we trace; 

A tender feeling is a crowning grace. 



46 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

EGLANTINE. 

ENGLISH. SIGNIFIES: THORNY. 

E ndure in beauty as at morn the skies 

G lowing with rosy tints and golden hue; 

L et not a cloud upon thy face arise, 

A s lovers fond annoyingly pursue, 

N or shun the admiration, justly due, 

T hat must be thine, whatever else may come. 

1 1 is thy right, without an effort won, 

N or intermits its rays, as does the sun; 

E xerting force to strike all rivals dumb. 



ELEANOR. 

ANOTHER FORM OF HELEN. 

E ffulgent now thy beauties blaze — 

L ike as at sunrise rosy rays, 

E nrobed in lustre of the morn — 

A nd partly veiled by modesty; 

N or shall they please the less when, born 

O f passing time, the twilight plays, 

R ecalled by pleasant memory. 



ELFRIDA. 

OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: A GOOD COUNSELLOR. A FEMININE 
FORM OF ALFRED. 

E voked by contemplation of thy worth, 

L ess than thy beauty, though thy charms be great; 

F lowing from those rare merits that had birth 

R ight from the impulses with good that mate, 

I find thy praises loud from every tongue, 

D ecreeing thee the first thy sex among, 

A nd sweet to hearers, be they said or sung. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
ELIZA. - 

HEBREW. CONTRACTION OF ELIZABETH. 

E lude not praise; thou canst not thus escape 
L ess honor than thy due, and gain no less 
I n admiration for thy face and shape; 
Z anies, who feel an envious distress, 
A lone may dare to doubt thy loveliness. 



ELIZABETH. 



HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: CONSECRATED TO GOD; OR, WHO SWEARS 
BY GOD. 

E xcelling others in her form and face, 
Low-toned her voice, and musical its pitch; 
I n every motion artlessne: ; and grace; 
Z ealous in duty, that no baffling owns; 
A sight that angels look at with delight, 
B orn for a model to all womankind — 
E ven like some antique statue in its niche. 
T he bard who wills to do her right, will find 
H e has a subject taxing all his might. 



ELLA. 

GREEK. CONTRACTION OF ELEANOR. 

E ntrancing with thy beauty sweet, 
L ove's homage lies before thy feet; 
L ow-toned our voices, for in those 
A sense of deepest feeling shows. 



48 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

ELLEN. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: A GREEK. ALSO A DIMINUTIVE OF ELEANOR. 

E mbrace the good that round thee starts — 

L ove, friendship, honor and respect, 

L ess by thy charms than these bedecked; 

E nshrined as thou art in our hearts, 

N eeding no love-enticing arts. 



ELLICE. 

SCOTCH. CORRUPTED FORM OF ALICE. 

E xcite less fondness thou, or less disdain — 
L ess dark the cloud the gentler falls the rain* 
L ess the wide landscape pleases than appals, 
I f deep ravines appear and dangerous falls. 
C ast pride aside, and should thy charms compel 
E xhaustless love, give thou thy love as well. 



ELINOR. 

SAME AS ELEANOR. 



E legant manners match thy lovely face, 

L eading admirers all a fruitless chase. 

I n later days perchance that heart of thine, 

Now free, may to captivity incline. 

O, may thy* captor then — blest of all swains — 

R esolve to much deserve the prize he gains ! 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
ELSIE. 

SCOTCH. DIMINUTIVE OF ALICE. 

E ndures the test, my lady frank and fair; 
Love lights her eyes, and blushes deck her cheeks; 
S weet fragrance of her deeds pervades the air — 
I ncense that virtue gives — while proudly there 
E xalted honor loud her praises speaks. 



ELVIRA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: WHITE. 

E ar-shrift I ask from thee, if thou wilt hear, 
L ow-kneeling for thy blest forgiveness now, 
V ile sinner that I am, that could appear 
I n that bright beauty beaming from thy brow, 
R efusing praise; absolve and take my vow 
A lways henceforth before thy charms to bow. 



EMILY. 

OLD GERMAN. THE SAME AS EMMELINE. 

E asy in manner, elegant, refined, 

M odest her looks, accordant with her mind; 

I n beauty clad, with sober sense entwined; 

L oving unselfishly her kin and kind, 

Y et to her own rare merits ever blind. 



EMMA. 

OLD GERMAN. THE SAME AS EMMELINE. 

E luding sight, a subtle charm is thine, 
M ost difficult to properly define, 
M ade by thy beauty so beyond compare, 
A nd musical voice and manner debonair. 



50 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

EMMELINE. 

OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: ENERGETIC. 

E rst she was most admired of men who bore 

M ost regular features of that rigid cast 

M ade classical by those who, in the past, 

E joyed supremacy in the sculptor's art; 

L ove fell on such alone: but so no more. 

I n state enthroned within the modern heart, 

N ow queens are crowned in whom, like thee, they find 

E thereal beauty both of face and mind. 



ESTHER. 

PERSIAN. SIGNIFIES: A STAR; GOOD FORTUNE. 

E ver the same, whatever fate may come, 

S lander, when she appears, is awed and dumb. 

T he very flowers that in her pathway lie 

H ave higher beauty as she passes by; 

E ven the winds, charmed with her loveliness, 

R eceive her with a tender, mute caress. 



ETHEL. 

TEUTONIC. SIGNIFIES: NOBLE. CONTRACTION OF ETHELINDA. 

" E thel " means " noble," but nobility 
T he world has found lies not in birth alone, 
H er noble mind in noble thoughts we see, 
E nding in noble deeds; and thus 't is shown 
L ovely in looks, her works as sweet may be. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 51 

ETHELIND. 

TEUTONIC. SIGNIFIES: NOBLE SNAKE. 

E nvious of none, she quiet sits enthroned, 

T here, in a higher place than all the rest, 

H aving her praises by her friends intoned; 

E mbraced by honor, and by fortune blest. 

L ofty her thoughts, as well becomes her state, 

I n consciousness of our regard sedate; 

N o petty passions ever mar her face, 

D raped there before our eyes in truth and grace. 



EUDORA. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: GOOD GIFT. 

E aseful with happiness, the lady rests 

U nder a canopy of roses sweet; 

D raped, she, with modesty that well invests — 

O ver all thrown — and makes her charms complete. 

R espect and honor guard her sweet repose, 

A nd prayers of ours — less potent these than those. 



EUGENIA. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: WELL BORN. FEMININE OF EUGENE. 

Eyes bright with light, matching charms of rare splendor, 

U nder our gaze to our wonder commend her. 

G uard her, ye Powers, from all wrong to offend her; 

E vermore blessings — she weft deserves — send her; 

N ever let harm smite her innocence tender; 

I n her sweet ways, and her purity, lend her 

A ngels as wardens to ever attend her. 



52 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

EULALIE. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: FAIR SPEECH. 

E nforcing beauty by her winning ways; 

U nlike most beauties, shy of being seen; 

L acking a love of dress, a love of praise, 

A nd love of self; a crown to such a queen 

L et me in poesy present, to tell 

I n what respect I hold the modest mien 

E nthroned in our regard, and worshipped well. 



EUNICE. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: HAPPY CONQUEST. 

E xhaustless modesty has made thee seem 

U nto a stranger as both shy and dull; 

N ot so do those who have thy friendship, deem. 

I f in thy bashfulness some coldness lies, 

C are not for censure while, both strong and still, 

E xceeding warmth of heart beams through thine eyes. 



EUPHEMIA. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: OF GOOD REPORT; BEAUTIFUL SPEECH. 

E lse why have beauty, if it be concealed 
U nder the bashful cloud that o'er thee lies? 
P ut forth the eloquence of those luminous eyes; 
H ave faith in merit by, thy deeds revealed. 
E nd all thy timid ways; why shouldst thou fear, 
M ade by thy virtues to admirers dear ? 
J. n mail created by our love abide, 
A nd shine our comfort, as thou art our pride. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 53 

EVA. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES : LIFE. 

E ven as a crystal spring, that breaks from earth, 
V ile things rejects and quietly casts forth, 
A 11 sin is voided by thy truth and worth. 



EVANGELINE. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: A MESSENGER OF GOOD TIDINGS. 

Existence has its sorrows; few escape 

V ile torture, coming in a fearful shape 

A nd giving those who least deserve its frown 

N ot less the martyr's suffering than her crown. 

G race, beauty, virtue, tenderness and truth — 

Exempt not all; but be thy blooming youth 

L ess sadly visited because of these 

I mperial and disarming qualities; 

N erved to endure, if such thy sad despite, 

E ntrenched and armed by consciousness of right. 



EVELINE. 

DIMINUTIVE OF EVA. ITALIAN FORM. 

E xpressive words are difficult to find, 

V alid to paint thy charms of face and form, 

E arnest howe'er, or of what willing mind, 

L ove prompting, or a friendship true and warm, 

I n him who writes. Through sense of duty I, 

N evertheless, have dared the task to try — 

E xcuse for failure let thy heart supply, 



54 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

EVELYN. 

SAME AS EVELINE. 

E ver remain as now thou art, while all 

V ail them before thee with profound esteem; 
E ndure the praises that upon thee fall 

L ike showers of blossom-leaves upon the stream; 

Y et brightly let thy glance of kindness beam, 
N ow those around so much thy charms esteem. 



FAITH. 

ENGLISH. 

F air as the fairest thou, 
A nd sweetest of the sweet; 
I f those who to thee bow 
T hy kindly glances meet, 
H ere is their joy complete. 



FANNY. 

DIMINUTIVE OF FRANCES. 

F or life within my heart must be 
A feeling of regard that gives 
N o pleasure possibly to thee,. 
N or gains thy favor fond to me, 
Y et lives because thy beauty lives. 



FAUSTINA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: AUSPICIOUS. 

F ormed for our admiration and delight, 

A creature beaming in thy beauty bright, 

U nseen of many, since thy modest ways 

S hun notoriety, and shrink from praise, 

T hou mayst, at lines I bring to laud thy charms, 

I n bashful terror start, and meek alarms. 

N athless, thou must our homage meekly bear — 

A s well from praise might shrink the lily lair. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 55 

FELICIA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: HAPPINESS. 

F ar be it from my purpose here to write 

E ven one-half the meed thy worth demands; 

L anguage would be too weak, and words too light; 

I praise thee not for beauty, shining bright — 
C ompelling homage, both of hearts and hands, 

I I needs no praise — but for thy love of right, 
A merit winning hearts in hearts' despite. 



FLAVIA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: YELLOW-HAIRED. FEMININE OF FLAVIUS. 

F requent do poets try the sense to please, 

L ove not to win, but wonder to obtain, 

A nd find their work all lost; it may be these 

V erses, not filled with love, no praise may gain; 

I f they no ardent passion for thee feign, 

A t least a true regard inspires the strain. 



FLORA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: FLOWERS. 

F air as a dream of childhood seems the maiden; 
L ove hovers near, but finds her fancy free; 
O wing her homage, blossoms, odor-laden, 
R ise in her path, and bend when cometh she; 
A nd ills that others hurt, her henchmen be. 



56 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

FLORENCE. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: BLOOMING, FLOURISHING. 

F aster than lightning-flash the glance 
L eaps from thine eyes, to show thy views 
O f those who would their gain advance 
R egardless of the means they choose. 
E ntranced, we see thy virtuous scorn, 
N eeded when wrong arises so, 
C harms of thy matchless beauty born 
E nhancing by its righteous glow. 



FRANCES. 

GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: FREE, GENEROUS. FEMININE OF FRANCIS. 

F ate gave thee beauty — dangerous gift to some — 

R are charms have perils for the weak and vain; 

A nd yet at that grows envy scared and dumb, 

N or dares its malice to thy wrong maintain. 

C onquering by modest worth both friends and foes, 

E ach with their offerings to thy altar come, 

S ince kind regard moves these, and justice those. 



FREDERICA. 



OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: ABOUNDING IN PEACE. FE! 
OF FREDERIC. 

F or her there should no winter be; 
R oses should ever bloom around her, 
E ver from thorns her path be free, 
D ead fall all ills that dare to wound her; 
E ase and sweet comfort wait upon her, 
R epose at night and joy by day; 
I n her, her sex commands our honor, 
[ C harming all eyes with graceful way, 
A nd holding all men's hearts in sway. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 57 

GABRIELLA. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: WOMAN OF GOD. FEMININE OF GABRIEL. 

G ay as a day in May, when blossoms blow 
A nd birds are singing in the budding sprays, 
B right to our view her many beauties glow, 
R elying on themselves to gain our praise. 
I n this unconscious is the maiden still, 
Ever unknowing that her charms are such; 
L ove springs in us, regardless of her will — 
L ove, honor and regard — to gauge how much 
A limit in our mind we may not touch. 



GAY. 

ENGLISH. 



G uarded by virtue and honor from harm, 
A mple her innocence foes to disarm, 
Y et having beauty all gazers to charm. 



GEORGIANNA. 



SIGNIFIES: A TILLER OF THE SOIL. FEMININE OF 
GEORGE, ADDED TO ANNA. 

Go, lady, where the wild-flowers blow; 
E nter the copse where violets grow, 

r where the dogwood blossoms show: 

R each forth, and pluck their leaves of snow. 
G o where upon the placid lake 

1 n light the water-lilies lie, 

A nd stars upon the water make; 
N ote there how these to please thee vie, 
N ew charms assume when thou art nigh, 
A nd fairer grow to catch thine eye. 



58 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

GERALDINE. 

OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: STRONG WITH THE SPEAR. FEMI- 
NINE OF GERALD. 

Gay, without levity, her manners are; 

E xceeding fair is she, and yet not vain; 

R efined of mind, yet finding that no bar 

A gainst a candor which her truth makes plain; 

L iving a life of innocence and youth — 

D efying slander through her simple truth — 

I s there one man who looks upon her face, 

N or fails within its lineaments to trace 

E ach pure, sweet thought that in her soul has place ? 



GERTRUDE. 

OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: SPEAR-MAIDEN. 

G raceful and winning, frank and free, 
E ach movement marked with modesty; 
R osy thy path; thy manner shows 
T he consciousness of self-repose. 
R est thee, O lady, calm and still, 
U nder no fear of coming ill. 
D eem it not flattery when I say: 
E nvy and hate avoid thy way. 



GLADYS. 

CELTIC 

G rand in thy beauty, all the lines of grace 
L ie in thy perfect shape and perfect face; 
A nd while no dullness in thy air is seen, 
D eforming what were else a gracious mien, 
Y et in thine eyes lies scorn, in slight duress, 
S everely sweet, presumption to repress. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 59 

GRACE. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: THANKS, FAVOR. 

G old needs no gilding to increase its value, 
R oses no odor for their fragrance need, 
A nd you require no praise to swell your meed. 
C onceive that truth; and then no lyric shall you 
E xpect from me, to smile at as you read. 



HANNAH. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES : PRAYER, OR GRACE. THE SAME AS ANNA. 

H ere is a name which, read it as you may, 
A similar sweetness shows from either way. 
N o hardness there, no syllables to hiss, 
N o guttural sounds ring horrible in this; 
A nd so its owner — scan her as you may, 
H er charms the same rare excellence display. 



HARRIET. 

OLD GERMAN. FEMININE OF HARRY. 

H armonious music as thy footsteps fall, 

A nd light where beams with friendly glance thine eyes; 

R obed in a modest bearing most of all, 

R aiment a queen herself might justly prize. 

I ncense I bring to burn before thy shrine, 

Early and late; no flatterer's offering mine — 

T he homage won by worth, and fairly thine. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS, 
HELEN. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES : LIGHT. 

H earts winning by her quiet charms, 
E xacting little, seeking naught, 
L ove comes to her unbid, unsought, 
E ntreating that he may be caught, 
N or leave the prison of her arms. 



HENRIETTA. 



OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: HEAD OF A FAMILY. FEMININ 
DIMINUTIVE OF HENRY. 

" H ere is a heart responsive to thy touch !" 
Exclaims the lover; but he says too much; 
N ever, if on its strings thy whim may play, 
R espect for such a weakling object pay. 
I f 'in its stead a heart be offered thee 
E xceeding firm — that dare rebuke thy wrong; 
T hat may some day thy sure protection be; 
T hat in thy need may prove a buckler strong— 
A t once 'twixt thine and that let barter be. 



HESTER. 

THE SAME AS ESTHER. 

H er features perfect are; her air 
E xceeding others, and her ways 
S uch sweet proportion ever bear 
T o all the rest, that to her praise 
E ach poet, conquered by her beauty, 
R ecites his verses as a duty. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 61 

HONORA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES : HONORABLE. 

H igh in regard of those who know thee best, 
O ne of those beings whom we rarely see — 
N ot made as foe, but model for the rest; 
O ver thy beauty wearing modesty — 
R emain as now thou art, devoid of arts, 
A nd, seeking not to win them, win all hearts. 



HORTENSIA. 



. signifies: a flower garden, feminine of hor- 

TENSIUS. 

H ere we have one whose beauty seems to be 

f antique pattern, like a statue which 
R eposes calmly in a sculptured niche, 

T o impress beholders with its symmetry. 
E ach feature perfect in that face of hers, 
N o part discordant; but so calm and cold 
S he stands on high above her worshippers, 

1 mmovable, and waits till time enfold 

A ffection round the charms we now behold. 



HULDAH. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: A MOLE, OR WEASEL; A PROPHETESS 

H ow tremble all with fond emotion 
U nder her glances calm and sweet, 
L aying their duty and devotion 
D own unreservedly at her feet, 
A nd, but one kindly smile to gain, 
H olding no labor touched with pain! 



62 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

IDA. 

OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: GOD-LIKE. 

I f lauded for their charms, as lilies are, 

D ames round thee stand, this truth thy envy bar: 

A violet like thee is sweeter far. 



IMOGENE. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: OF LOWLY BIRTH. 

I n olden time they feigned the swan, in dying — 
M usical end ! — exhaled his soul in song; 
O ver the lake the mournful numbers flying, 
G ave thrills of pity to the listening throng. 
E xistence were poor sacrifice could I, 
N ot as I do, but, with the swan to vie, 
E mbalm thy beauty in my song, and die 



IRENE. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: PEACE. 

I n poems of old days we see 
R ecorded charms of ladies fair, 
E ach said to be beyond compare; 
N ot one of them, it seems to me, 
E quals the tribute due to thee. 



ISA. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: EQUAL. 

I f in your heart be room for more than one, 
S weet though she be, the charming Isa shun; 
A queen like she is shares her realm with none. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
ISABEL. 

A FORM OF ELIZABETH. 

I f beauty, grace and modesty, 

S weetness, that fond affection stirs, 

A nd worth, had power to make decree, 

B e sure a happy fate were hers, 

E ffusive on the maid bestowing 

L ove, friendship, wealth and honors glowing. 



ISABELLA. 

HEBREW. ITALIAN FORM OF ISABEL. {See Bella, p. 32.) 

I n simple verse like this of mine, 

S weet lady, do not hope to find 

A honeyed love in every line, 

B rought from the blooming flowers of mind. 

E nough that friendship strong, sincere, 

L eads me to lay an offering here; 

L ess lamely might these lines express 

A feeling, were that feeling less. 



IVY. 

. DERIVED FROM AN OLD GERMAN WORD SIGNIFYING A 
BEE. 

I n thy sweet face the beauties that repose 

V ie with the violet, and surpass the rose, 

Y et each the other into shadow throws. 



JANE. 

HEBREW. FEMININE OF JOHN. THE SAME AS JOAN OR JOHANNA. 

J oined to thy beauty, truth and right we see; 
A nd that is what thy friends admire in thee: 
N o charms of face but perish; yet we find 
E ndure in our regard the charms of mind. 



64 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

JANET. 

SCOTCH FORM OF JANE. 

J ustice to thee asks verses fair, 
A nd yet to write them I despair. 
N o language I could coin, or steal, 
E ver could fittingly reveal 
T he admiration that I feel. 



JEMIMA. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: A DOVE. 

J oyous of heart, since sin has brought no woe; 

E asy of manner, since she knows no guile; 

M ark where she moves; what sunlight in her smile! 

I n every motion dignity and grace; 

M ade for the comfort of her kin below, 

A nd taking in all hearts the foremost place. 



JENNY. 

A DIMINUTIVE OF JANE AND EUGENIA. 

' J ests he at scars who never felt a wound " — 
E xamine Shakespere, where you'll find it written. 
N o saying ever was more true and sound; 
N o doubt the man who wrote by love was bitten; 
Y et how could he one fair as thou have found? 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 65 

JERUSHA. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: WEDDED. 

J oined to her charm of face and mind 
E xceeding modesty we find, 
R eceiving and imparting light, 
U nder and by the contact bright; 
S he loves not yet perchance, but she 
H er fitting mate at last may see, 
A nd then her life shall perfect be. 



JESSIE. 

signifies: wealth. FEMININE OF JESSE. 

J oy, that to innocence fate owes as duty, 
Ever go with thee to brighten thy beauty; 
S oft falls thy voice in its musical metre, 
S weet be thy life, as thy voice is, and sweeter; 
I n thy whole destiny all things be pleasant, 
E ase in the future and hope in the present. 



JOAN. 

LW. SIGNIFIES: THE GRACIOUS GIFT OF GOD. FEMININI 
OF JOHN. 

J ustice is blindfold, so the poets say; 

O ur reason tells us that their tale is true; 

A nd that shows why, though yours of right to-day, 

N o crown for beauty has been given to you. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
JOHANNA. 

LATIN FORM OF JOAN. 

J udge if I say too much if I confer 

O n fair Johanna this undoubted praise: 

H aving beauty given at her birth to her, 

A nd judgment rare, and most attractive ways, 

N ever has she within her mind allowed, 

N o matter what the flattery of the crowd, 

A shade of vanity her worth to cloud. 



JOSEPHINE. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: ADDITION. FEMININE OF JOSEPH. 
FRENCH FORM. 

J oined to a piercing eye, perception keen — 

f modest manner, yet of noble mien; 

S weet without fawning, proud without pretence, 
E minent for her wit and cool good sense; 
P lain in her speech, but never curt nor rude; 
H aving the power to please with every mood — 

1 n her such merits to the eye appear, 

N ot even the envious fail to hold her dear, 
E xcelling as she does all women here. 



JUDITH. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: PRAISED. 

J ealous of none, but rendering all the praise 

U ndoubtedly their due, her artless ways 

D efy the sneers of rivals, if such were; 

I ncreased her charms by beauty past compare, 

T here need no wonder rise when it is found 

H ow love and honor circle her around. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 67 

JULIA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: SOFT-HAIRED. FEMININE OF JULIUS. 

J ealous of thee whoever are, 

U nder thy blaze of beauty, 

L ack they the power from thee to bar 

I ncreased regard from near and far, 

A nd paid thee as a duty. 



JULIANNA. 



LATIN. FEMININE OF JULIAN. 

J aundiced the vision that would fain behold 
U nder thy beauty selfish thoughts and cold J 
L et such feel sure the coldness is their own— 
I s the dark shadow of their souls alone; 
A nd learn that in her heart, as in her eyes, 
N o cold reserve, but warm affection lies; 
N o warmth for wrong abides there, but sincere 
A nd fervid feeling for all goodness here. 



JULIET. 

DIMINUTIVE OF JULIA. 

J une brings the roses red that glow 
U nder the sun with fragrant splendor; 
L et winter come, they cease to blow; 
I n that their glory they surrender: 
E steemed art thou beyond the rose — 
T hy beauty at all seasons glows. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
KATE. 

DIMINUTIVE OF CATHERINE. 

K nights, in the olden day, for love of thee 
A joust had held, and by their feats of arms 
T heir admiration shown; now, chivalry 
E nshrines in verse its offering to thy charms. 



KITTY. 

DIMINUTIVE OF CATHERINE. 

K nit to thee by a chain no time can melt, 

I n admiration, are thy many friends; 

T hy face and form first forged these links; these felt 

T he fire thy virtues fanned — a fire that bends 

Y et strengthens more the bright and golden belt. 



LAURA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: A LAUREL. 

L et one who much admires thee, modest bring 

A line or two to show how he admires; 

U nless, because he can but poorly sing, 

R oughly, in metre that the hearer tires, 

A cold contempt on him thy friends should fling. 



LAVINIA. 

SIGNIFIES: AN INHABITANT OF LATIUM. 

L ady of the virgin heart, 

A rdent lovers, courting thee, 

V ersed in the harmonic art, 

I ncense give in poetry. 

N ot to me are muses kind; 

I n these lines no melody, 

A dmiration only find. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
LEONORA. 

ANOTHER FORM OF ELEANOR. 

L ilies in her complexion, yet 

E ven lilies lose by that comparing, 

O r, placed beside her, fume and fret, 

N or deem their color worth the wearing; 

O f hues that on her cheeks are seen, 

R oses might fairer be if sharing — 

Ah! lilies! roses! own your queen. 



LETITIA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: JOY. 

L ove moves thee not; a pure, unsullied page, 

E xceeding hard to write on, is thy heart; 

T hus let it ever be, for passion's rage 

I s sure, though sweet at first, to leave a smart. 

T his should not be thy fate, and, when they bend 

I n courtship, wooing thee with subtle art, 

A void the path that may in sorrow end. 



LETTICE. 

A VARIETY OF LETITIA. 

L ilies are fair, like thee, but fragrance lack, 

E nrapturing vision, but no other sense; 

T hou hast a beauty that makes them seem black— 

The fragrance of good deeds. This eminence 

I n thee seems natural, and it is what 

C onfers more honor even than thy beauty, which 

Exceeding is, and rare and ripe and rich. 



70 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

LILY. 

LATIN. THE NAME OF A FLOWER. 

L ow of voice and bright of eye, 
I f for thee fond lovers sigh, 
L eave them hopeless at thy feet; 
Y et awhile is freedom sweet. 



LIZZIE. 

A DIMINUTIVE OF ELIZABETH. 

L augh, lady, at thy lovers much, 
I f their delusion should be such — 
Z anies in that — to think, these days, 
Z eal does not stand a better plight 
I n love's sweet race, than sighing lays 
E xactly like the one I write. 



LORINDA. 

A VARIATION OF LAURA. 

L eap forth the lightning of thy glance 

n light and silly lovers, who 

R ecite, with vacant countenance, 

1 nsipid speeches when they woo: 
N ever let such with hope pursue; 

D espise all gabblers when they come — 
A man who loves is nearly dumb. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. ■ 71 

LOUISA. 

OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: WARLIKE. FEMININE OF LOUIS. 

L est by thy glance his purpose be o'erthrown, 

r he whose eyes wound others lose his own, 
U ncertain Cupid's sight must bandaged be 

1 n case he comes some time to visit thee. 

S adder thy lovers' fates; they may not bind 

A ught on their eyes, but see thee, and go blind. 



LUCINDA. 

LATIN. THE SAME AS LUCY. 

Love at thy heart's strong fortress waits, 

U rging a siege before the gates 

C ontrived to keep, for many a day, 

I ntruding lovers far away. 

N ever let him advantage gain;. 

D o all to make his warfare vain, 

A nd thus thy liberty retain. 



LUCY. 

SIGNIFIES: BORN AT DAWN. FEMININE OF LUCIUS. 

L ady, a bard who strikes the strings, 
U ntrained to rhyme, unknown to fame, 
C onfessing he but poorly sings, 
Y et honors in his verse thy name, 



LYDIA. 



GREEK. 

L ife be joyous, healthful, sprightly; 
Y outh by love be gilded brightly; 
D reams of joy attend thee nightly; 
I lis, if such should come, strike slightly; 
A nd good fortune treat thee rightly. 



72 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS, 

MABEL, 

A CONTRACTION OF AMABEL. 

M agnificent in queenly grace, 

A nd perfect she would be in face, 

B ut that she'll have no lover nigh her; 

E nds that in time— caught through his chase, 

L ove will more fully beautify her. 



MADELAINE. 

FRENCH FORM OF MAGDALENA, 

M any have worshipped thee before, 
A nd time shall bring thee many more, 
D elighted each to wear thy chains, 
E ndure thy scorn, and bear their pains. 
L ove makes their madness, and I see 
A fair excuse for that in thee. 
I blame them not, since I admire 
N o less than they; a lack of fire 
E xplains the fact that I am free. 



MADGE. 

DIMINUTIVE OF MARGARET. 

M uch she reminds us of a dream of grace, 
A vision that we scarce can think is real; 
D elighted though we be, upon her face 
G aze we as on some perfect thing ideal, 
E xpecting it to pass and leave no trace. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 73 

MAGDALENA. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: BELONGING TO MAGDALA. 

M atchless the maiden is; to her 

A thousand angels minister; 

G races that others disobey 

D efer to her, and with her stay; 

A sweet unrest, a shy surprise, 

L ie in the deep lake of her eyes; 

E ach word is pure, each deed is kind; 

N o wrong or cruel thoughts could find 

A lodgment in her innocent mind. 



MARGARET. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: A PEARL. 

M y lady comes as comes the sun, 
A troop of joys with her appear; 
R oses that faded were and dun 
G row brighter at her presence here. 
A sweeter fragrance fills the air; 
R enewed the glory of the day; 
E ven autumn is so young and fair : 
T he season has gone back to May. 



MARCIA. 



SIGNIFIES: SPRUNG FROM MARS. FEMININE OF 
MARCIUS AND MARK. 

M any admire the dahlia, since 
A gaudy beauty in it lies, 
R ich in its bold and gorgeous tints, 
C harming the startled gazers' eyes; 
I n the violet sweeter charms I see, 
A nd hence I send these lines to thee. 



74 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS, 

MARIA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: STAR OF THE SEA. 

M etre to fitly honor thee? 

A las! no bard may power possess — 

R ich though his store of words may be- 

I n verse to properly express 

A tribute to thy loveliness. 



MARIANNE. 

A COMBINATION OF MARY AND ANNE. 

M uch as her praises have been sung — 

A nd many bards her friends among 

R ecite her charms of face and form, 

I n songs with thought and feeling warm, 

A nd musical in every note — 

N ot one whose verses I have met, 

N o matter how he sung or wrote, 

E ver did justice to her yet. 



MARION. 

A FRENCH FORM OF MARY. 

M ore of a violet she than a rose; 

A 11 of her sweetness she shuns to disclose. 

R oses so proud, though they spring from the dust, 

I mitate her in her modesty must, 

O r we will banish them angrily then, 

N ever to grow in the garden again. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 75 

MARTHA. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: THE RULER OF THE HOUSE J SORROWFUL. 

M arvel not, maiden, in thy modesty, 

A t this poor tribute written here by me. 

R eceive these verses kindly, thinking less 

T he thing they say than what they meant to express. 

H onor the motive though the action fail, 

A nd let no critic cold my work assail. 



MARY. 

ENGLISH FORM OF MARIA. 



M ade for the high or low although it be, 
A name could not be found more fitting thee — 
R eady for courtly dames, for poor ones meet, 
Y et, even as thou art, innocently sweet. 



MATILDA. 

OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: BATTLE-MAID; HEROINE. 

M ade for the glory and the pride of those 

A round her dwelling, smiles her lips disclose 

T hat tell of innocence and peace within. 

I f she should prize her power men's hearts to win, 

L ike others, and their thirst for sway had found, 

D esire and power combining, sad the woes 

A beauty such as hers could spread around. 



MAUD. 

CONTRACTION OF MAGDALENA AND MATILDA. 

M atch me this lady, if you may, 

A mong the maidens of the day; 

U nknown her mate in form and mind, 

D rawn from the cultured and refined. 



76 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

MAY. 

ENGLISH. 

M ay all good angels guard her night and day, 
A nd, after many years, when old and grey, 
Y outh in her feelings make each month a May. 



MILLICENT 



M ay and June once met together 
1 1 was in the sunny weather. 
L aughing, she in hand discloses 
L ily buds and burgeoned roses. 
I nnocent she asked him — " Are there 
C harms that go in beauty farther ?'" 
' E xcellent those," he said, to greet her 
" N evertheless, in beauty sweeter, 
T hose of Millicent are completer." 



MIRANDA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: WORTHY OF ADMIRATION. 

M arking her charms, the beholder 

I n vain her comparison seeks. 

R ose ! why, its color is colder, 

A nd pale when compared to her cheeks 

N ight in her eyes ; but what then ? 

D ay in her smile comes again, 

A nd seems with its light to enfold her. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 77 

MIRIAM. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: THEIR CONTUMACY. SAME AS MARY. 

M aiden, whose eye such coldness shows, 

I n whose pure heart no passion glows, 

R ejoice not yet ; thy fate may be 

I mpending happily o'er thee, 

A nd one now to thy heart unknown 

M ay woo and win thee for his own. 



MOLLIE. 

A DIMINUTIVE OF MARY. 

M ight I freely here to-day, 

n this page of paper white, 
L audatory verses write, 

L ittle would I dare to say; 

1 would shun the task lest she 

E yes of scorn should bend on me. 



MYRA. 

SIGNIFIES: ONE WHO WEEPS. 



M uch they esteem her those who little know, 
Y et wildly worship her who know her best ; 
R arely do maidens stand the touchstone so, 
A nd strong the merits that endure such test. 



NANCY. 

A FAMILIAR FORM OF ANNE. 

N ow buttercups are on the meads, 

A nd spring to winter cold succeeds; 

N ow song-birds choose their mates and sing, 

C hanting impatient till you bring 

Y ourself, and reign the queen of spring. 



78 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

NAOMI. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: PLEASANTNESS. 

N ever in Grecian story, 

A mpler in beauty and worth, 

f greater renown and glory, 

M ade beauty such mark on earth 

1 n a maiden of mortal birth. 



NELLY. 

A DIMINUTIVE OF HELEN. 

N o petty passions enter in thy breast, 
E nwreathe thy heart and by their contact chill; 
L ove has not in thy spirit stood confessed — 
L acking its pangs thou hast not dreamed of ill; 
Y et it shall come, and then beware of rest. 



NORA. 

CONTRACTION OF HONORA AND LEONORA 

N ot all our worship from the spell 
O f eyes that change with each emotion; 
R ather because within thee dwell 
A 11 virtues that command devotion. 



OLIVIA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: AN OLIVE. 

f the true color of her lovely eyes, 
Luminous with emotion, who decides? 

1 n them such treasured wealth of feeling lies, 
V arying their hue with every new surprise, 

I n vain to catch the shade the gazer tries, 
A s each bright tint into another glides. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
OPHELIA. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: LIKE A SERPENT. 

f cultured grace and honesty sincere, 
P laced as a model to all maidens near, 

H aving beauty just enough to please the eye, 
E asy of manner, yet with bearing high, 
L et her be prized by all who good desire 

1 n human form, so long as men admire 

A 11 that is best of earth, lit by a heavenly fire. 



PANSY. 

FRENCH. SIGNIFIES: THOUGHT. 

P ure as an infant's sleeping thoughts thy life, 
A nd matching well the beauty of thy face; 
N e'er may its peace be marred by care or strife; 
S weetest content pervade thy dwelling-place; 
Y outh bring thee pleasure, age no sorrow trace. 



PAULINE. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: LITTLE. FEMININE OF PAULtNUS. 

P aint summer roses of a deeper hue, 

A nd tint forget-me-nots celestial blue! 

U seless such toil; not less absurd would be 

L audatory verses to her charms from me. 

I ncense were lost on her; of that she feeis 

N o need; a censer-full each swain who kneels 

E ver bestows, as he for love appeals. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
PENELOPE. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: A WEAVER. 

P eace in the present, in the future joy 

E ffuse from heaven to bless thee in thy way; 

N aught spring from ill to work thy heart annoy; 

E ndure these blessings till thy latest day. 

L ove in thy heart shall as a fountain spring, 

O n whose clear flow the rainbow hope shall rise; 

P erpetual virtue to thy spirit cling, 

E xalt thee here, then bear thee to the skies. 



PHILLIS. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: A LEAF. 

P eril to gazers in those melting eyes, 

H aving such powers to strike beholders blind; 

I ncessant pouring forth their dazzling rays; 

L ying in ambush there, in armed guise, 

L ove ready seems to strike at humankind; 

I f so, moved by thy heart when he complain, 

S weet words of thine shall soothe the victim's pain. 



PHOEBE. 



GREEK. SIGNIFIES: BRIGHT; RADIANT; PURE. FEMININE OF 
PHOEBUS OR APOLLO, TYPICAL OF THE SUN. 

P ersuade this maid that she shall hide away 

H alf of the charms with which she lights the day, 

O r she shall drive men mad with loving, and, 

E ntreat howe'er she may, her life be banned. 

B ear her this truth : clouds sometimes shade the sun, 

E lse eyes that gaze upon it are undone, i 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS, 81 

POLLY. 

A VARIATION OF MOLLY. 

P erverse is he who will not see thy beauty, 

O r, seeing - , deems it not his bounden duty 

L ow at thy feet his homage deep to lay. 

L et the churl go; he is but common clay; 

Y outh, worth and beauty win, say what he may. 



PRISCILLA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: GETTING OLD. 

P erfection is not thine; few perfect are. 

R evile not fate, which formed thy frame of dust; 

I f human frailty interpose a bar, 

S topping thy nature short of angels just, 

C ontent thee with the truth that thou art formed- 

I n human things some blemish still must mar — 

L acking but little of the truth and worth 

L eft here for mortals by strong virtue warmed, 

A nd therefore fittest to adorn our earth. 



PRUDENCE. 



P ray, if you find this lady fair 
R eposing, where she oft reposes, 
U nder the garden arbor, where 
D ally the wild-bees with the roses, 
E ntreat her that the place she leave; 
N ame absence to her as a duty; 
C ompel her, lest the roses grieve, 
E clipsed and humbled by her beauty. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
RACHEL. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: A SHEEP. 

R arely a maiden fair as she 
A ppears the gazers' eyes to please, 
C harming with grace and purity, 
H ere in such dreary days as these: 
E njoy her presence while you may, 
L ove soon will bear her far away. 



REBECCA. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: OF SURPASSING BEAUTY. 

R osy hues, thy path adorning, 

E ver make thy life one morning; 

B lue the skies that bend above thee; 

E ndless happiness approve thee. 

C ould my power my wishes mate, 

C arried by desire to fate, 

A lways thus should be thy state. 



RHODA. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: A ROSE. 

R ealm where the roses ever grow, 
H er proper dwelling-place is there; 
O n seeing her each flower would show 
D elight at loveliness so rare, 
A nd own her fair and debonair. 



ROSA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: A ROSE. 

R eceive the homage brought to you, 
O f right, and as your proper due, 
S weetest where sweetest creatures are, 
A nd fairest of the fair by far^ 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. B. 

ROSABEL. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: A BEAUTIFUL ROSE. 

R arer than buttercups in brown October, 

O r ice beneath the hot sun of July, 

S he is who, to a manner cold and sober, 

A dds fascination of her voice and eye. 

B ut thou art such a one; and who would fain 

E scape thy power, must, to avoid thy chain, 

L eave all behind, and from thy presence fly. 



ROSALIE. 

ITALIAN FORM OF ROSA. SIGNIFIES: A LITTLE ROSE. 

R apt in content I gaze 

n beauty such as thine, 

S weetened by winning ways 
A nd virtue half divine. 
L ife doubly would I prize 

1 f one kind glance should blaze 
E loquent from those eyes. 



ROSALIND. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: BEAUTIFUL AS A ROSE. 

R ely not on thy beauty — though it be 

f such rare nature as we seldom see — 
S ure losing its perfection as it must, 

A nd fading ere its owner falls to dust. 
Less changeable thy nobler qualities; 

1 counsel thee to hold thy friends with these. 

N oteworthy truth, good nature and good sense — 
D eath shall not touch them till it takes thee hence. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
ROSAMOND. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: ROSE OF THE WORLD 

R eceive the admiration here 

O f one who honors youth and beauty, 

S ending these lines, with heart sincere, 

A s well-meant tokens of his duty 

M ake all excuses for the lack 

O f power within his work appearing, 

N or send his halting verses back, 

Denied contemptuously a hearing. 



ROSE. 

ENGLISH. SIGNIFIES: ARMOR. 

R ising above thy rivals so in beauty, 
O let it make thee humble in thy ways, 
S ince purity like thine, and love of duty, 
E ndure the most, and win the surest praise. 



RUTH. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: BEAUTY, OR A TRIEND. 

R are do we see such tenderness 

U nder such glowing charms as thine, 

T hat with their beauty in excess 

H igh thoughts and pleasant words combine. 



SALLY. 

DIMINUTIVE OF SARAH. 



S oft words and gentle tones become her best, 
A nd tender thought and careful judgment speak; 
L ove for all .living things in those expressed 
L eaves her few foes, and they so poor and weak, 
Y ou pity them when once they stand confessed. 



ORIGINAL A CRITICS. 85 

SARAH. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES : A PRINCE. 

S weetness of temper, features fair, 
A garland of them making there, 
R are innocence she brings to bind it; 
A sk you the name the maid may bear? 
H ere in these verses seek and find it. 



SERENA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: PLACID. FEMININE OF SERENUS 

S it thou in all thy queenly beauty now, 

E nthroned in our regard; upon thy brow 

R est dazzlingly the diadem of truth, 

E xalting so the beauty of thy youth, 

N or think me flatterer if I say and deem 

A 11 words too weak to tell thee our esteem. 



SOPHIA. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: WISDOM. 

S hame fall on him who dare deny thy worth, 

r would detract from praise that is thy due; 
P ity the hate that envy brought to birth, 

H owever justice may the wretch pursue. 

1 nvite his malice, since his wrath malign 

A foil becomes to heighten charms like thine. 



SUSAN. 

ANOTHER FORM OF SUSANNA. 

S how me a fairer than the perfect she 
U nto whose charms these verses tribute bring; 
S he shall henceforth my earthly goddess be, 
A nd from that time my sole delight to sing 
N ew praises of her charms and dignity. 



ORIltfAL ACROSTICS. 

SUSANNA. 

HEBREW. SIGNIFIES: A LILY. 

S hare with me here the deep esteem 

U nder this halting metre hid, 

S aluting one whose sweet eyes gleam 

A glory from each fringed lid, 

N o wrong in her a welcome bid, 

N o other guests 'than innocence, 

And virtue, firm without pretence. 



SYBIL. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: A PROPHETESS. 

S ay not the poet's song is free, 
Y et ever aimless as the air; 
B elieve me, as these lines I dare, 
I f verse be written not to thee, 
L ess worthy praise it seems to me. 



TABITHA. 

SYRIAC SIGNIFIES: A GAZELLE. 

T his maiden's eyes are soft and bright, 

A nd filled with memories tender, 

B ut not alone their liquid light 

I mpresses with its splendor : 

T hey show a soul, they show a sense 

H atred of wrong, scorn of pretence, 

A nd kind thoughts that attend her. 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 87 

TEMPERANCE. 

ENGLISH 

T he maiden who with mickle care 

E ndeavors lovers to ensnare, 

M uch as a spider when it tries 

P lacing a web to capture flies, 

E ntices not, with smiling sweet, 

R eluctant lovers to her feet. 

A nd yet, though thou hast knit no net, 

Nor woven a web, nor fool-trap set, 

C rowd lovers round thee here, to be 

E nchanted and yet spurned by thee. 



THERESA. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: CARRYING EARS OF CORN. 

T his maiden here is debonair, 
H igh thoughts are hers, and purpose fair; 
E ach wish she has, each act and deed, 
R ight frames, and gives its proper meed; 
E ach motion that she makes is grace, 
S weetly conceived to match her face 
A nd figure, grace's dwelling-place. 



THEODORA. 

C. SIGNIFIES: THE GIFT OF GOD; OR, GIVEN TO GOD. 
FEMININE OF THEODORE. 

T his be my duty, to rehearse thy worth 
H ere, in these pages where so many write; 
E lsewhere I give but feeble verses birth, 
O r lose by my neglect a proud delight. 
D eem me not vain if thus I hope to gain 
O f fame enough; the credit does not still 
R esult from mere success we may obtain, 
A s from the proper object of our will.^ 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 
URSULA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: A YOUNG SHE-BEAR. 

U nder what sky the blossom has been grown 
R eceives no question, if the bloom be fair; 
S o when such beauty as thou hast is known, 
U ngain to ask thy place of birth it were; 
L ittle it matters if of heaven or earth, 
A s either might be proud to own thy worth. 



VALERIA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: POWER, STRENGTH. FEMININE OF VALERIUS. 

V eil not thy face by absence from our eyes — 
A sun does wrong that shrinks in clouds away; 
L ight in thy glance should on admirers play, 
E Ise darkness meets us to our sad surprise. 
R ebuke me not lor saying this, I pray; 
I s it not truth? Since Eden's early day 
A 11 sunlight in a woman's glances lay. 



VICTORIA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: VICTORY. FEMININE OF VICTOR. 

V iewing the roses blooming in thy cheeks 
I n damask beauty, changing with each thought, 
C an he refrain from speaking well who speaks, 
T ouching the perfect manner nature wrought 

ur wonder and her handiwork, or well 
Refuse his homage warmly to express 

1 n numbers that but poorly feelings tell? 

A nd, having a heart, why, how could I do less? 



ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 89 

VIOLET. 

SH. THE NAME OF A FLOWER WHOSE ATTRIBUTE IS 
MODESTY. 

V apor of vapors is the hope to find 

I ncrease of favor in those pitiless eyes, 

O r find within thy pure and innocent mind 

Love-thoughts, and sweet affection's shy surprise; 

E nthroned therein are only thoughts of duty, 

T hat give a deeper charm to thy rare beauty. 



VIRGINIA. 

LATIN. SIGNIFIES: BELONGING TO A VIRGIN. 

V iew not these verses with disdain, 

I f rough the metre, tame and plain — ■ 

R eceive them as a tribute due, 

G iven from the writer's heart to you, 

I n simple, pure sincerity; 

N o less to fit your worth should be. 

I write them void of tricks of rhythm, 

A nd send regard and honor with them. 



WILHELMINA. 

OLD GERMAN. SIGNIFIES: A DEFENSE. FEMININE DIMINUTIVE 
OF WILHELM, WHICH IS THE GERMAN OF WILLIAM. 

W hen the tired traveller from some hill -top sees 
I n vale beneath a lowly farm-house stand — 
L ying around it far on either hand 
H erbage for kine, and blossoms for the bees — 
E nds then his fear no rest he may obtain; 
L eaving the height he hastes to comfort gain. 
M ake him thy model; gain the perfect rest 
I n love that lives in one devoted breast; 
N o more let all men worship beauty which 
A t length shall fade, however rare and rich. 



90 ORIGINAL ACROSTICS. 

WINIFRED. 

teutonic, signifies: a lover of peace. 
W hen youth has passed, and all thy charms, 
I n such excess of wealth to-day, 
N o more excite the fond alarms 
In youthful hearts that now they may, 
F ear not unkindness or despite; 
R est sure thy chiefest charms shall stay: 
E minent virtue, truth and right 
D efy old age and mock decay. 



ZOE. 

GREEK. SIGNIFIES: LIFE. 

Z ealous admirers who thy worth proclaim, 
O n wings of praise exalting thus thy name, 
E xpect reward — thy smile, worth more than fame. 




ORIGINAL LINES WITH FLOWERS. 91 



ORIGINAL LINES WITH FLOWERS. 

The presentation of a bouquet of flowers is always a 
charming offering to a lady, and is acceptable even when 
any other gift might be deemed a breach of etiquette. 

The offering of flowers is of very ancient usage, almost 
as old as the first gift of fruit; which, however, cannot 
well be regarded in the same light, as it was a lady's offer- 
ing to a gentleman, and caused unutterable disaster. 

A few appropriate verses may accompany the flowers, 
to convey the compliments and good wishes of the sender. 



WITH A BOUQUET. 

To one, herself a flower, these flowers: 
Ah! how completer she appears! 

Their beauties fade ere many hours; 

Her charms remain through many years. 



WITH FLOWERS. 

Blossoms! I send you as sweets to the sweet; 

Go, pay your homage to beauty confessed; 
Glad should you be if you lie at her feet; 

Gladder by far on her bosom to rest. 
Humbly implore of her; beg her to give 

Grace to preserve you from fading away; 
Smiles she upon you, your beauty shall live — 

Frowns she the least, it shall sink to decay. 



92 ORIGINAL LINES WITH FLOWERS, 

WITH A NOSEGAY. 

This nosegay to my lady bear, 
That, when upon her bosom set, 

Gazers may own, though this be fair, 
The one it decks is fairer yet. 



WITH ROSES. 

Go, roses, and the maiden seek; 

Delight her with your ruddy color; 
But should she place you near her cheek, 

Your hue by contrast would grow duller. 
Ask her in hand to keep you — so 

Your tints will show more strength and brightness, 
And seem at least to redder grow 

Beside her fingers' creamy whiteness. 

THOS. DUNN ENGLISH. 



The following verses, to accompany a gift of flowers, are 
selected from various sources for their fitness for the pur- 
pose and beauty of expression. 

WITH A NOSEGAY OF VIOLETS. 

Dear object of my late and early prayer! 

Source of my joy! and solace of my care! 

Whose gentle friendship such a charm can give 

As makes me wish and tells me how to live! 

To thee the muse with grateful hand would bring 

These first fair children of the doubtful spring. 

O may they, fearless of a varying sky, 

Bloom in thy breast and smile beneath thine eye! 

In fairer lights their vivid blue display, 

And sweeter breathe their little lives away. 

JOHN LANGHORNE. 



LINES WITH FLOWERS. 93 

WITH A BOUQUET. 

Flowers are love's truest language; they betray, 
Like the divining rods of Magi old, 
Where priceless wealth lies buried, not of gold, 

But love — strong love, that never can decay! 

I send thee flowers, O dearest! and I deem 

That from their petals thou wilt hear sweet words, 
Whose music clearer than the voice of birds, 

When breathed to thee alone, perchance may seem 
All eloquent of feelings unexpress'd. 

Oh, wreathe them in those tresses of dark hair! 

Let them repose upon thy forehead fair, 

And on thy bosom's yielding snow be press'd! 

Thus shall thy fondness for my flowers reveal 

The love that maiden coyness would conceal! 

PARK BENJAMIN. 

WITH FLOWERS. 
Flowers to the fair: to you these flowers I bring, 
. And strive to greet you with an earlier spring. 
Flowers sweet, and gay, and delicate like you s 
Emblems of innocence and beauty too. 
With flowers the Graces bind their yellow hair, 
And flowery wreaths consenting lovers wear. 
Flowers, the sole luxury which nature knew, 
In Eden's pure and guiltless garden grew, 
To loftier forms are tougher tasks assigned, 
The shelt'ring oak resists the stormy wind, 
The tougher yew repels invading foes, 
And the tall pine for future navies grows; 
But this soft family, to cares unknown, 
Were born for pleasure and delight alone, 
Gay without toil, and lovely without art, 
They spring to cheer the sense and glad the heart. 
Nor blush, my fair, to own your copy these: 
Your best, your sweetest empire, is to please. 

AIKIN. 



9i LINES WITH PHILOPENA FORFEITS. 



LINES WITH PHILOPENA FORFEITS. 

The word " Philopena" is of mixed origin; it appears 
to be derived from the Greek "philos," a friend, and the 
Latin * ' poena, " a penalty. Its signification, as derived from 
these sources, would be " a friendly forfeit. " The Germans 
render it ' ' Vielliebchen. " 

When a person, eating almonds in company, finds two 
kernels in one shell, he hands one of the kernels to a 
lady, saying at the same time "Philopena." The same 
may be done by a lady to a gentleman. If afterwards 
either one of the two parties accepts anything from the 
hand of the other, the giver exclaims " Philopena," and 
the receiver must pay a forfeit, which always must take the 
form of a gift. When both the parties understand the 
matter thoroughly, there is a great deal of ingenuity neces- 
sary on either side to catch the other in an unguarded mo- 
ment. As an accompaniment to such a gift, the original 
verses given here are very appropriate. 



WITH A PAIR OF GLOVES. 
I send a pair of gloves, of such 

A texture as befits you rarely; 
You won them — can we wonder much, 

When all men's hearts you win so fairly ? 
And yet they're sent reluctantly; 

My look with envy on them lingers; 
Since they without reproof are free 

To hold and press your taper fingers. 

THOS. DUNN ENGLISH. 



LINES WITH PHILOPENA FORFEITS. 95 

WITH A SONG-BIRD. 

This warbler for thy forfeit take, 

And, if not for the giver's sake, 

Then for the songster's melody 

Let him esteemed and cherished be. 

For him fresh seed and water pure, 

That he his thrall may well endure; 

For him kind words and pleasant smiles, 

All that captivity beguiles; 

And know that, when from swelling throat 

He pours his song with plaintive note, 

Until the music of the bird 

Thy soul unto its depths has stirred, 

And made thine eyes with pity dim, 

My heart is in the cage with him. 

THOS. DUNN ENGLISH. 



WITH A WORK-BASKET. 

Though busy as a bee art thou, 
Yet that thou mayest the busier be, 

And have no cause to knit thy brow, 
I send this wicker gift to thee, 

Within whose ample verge to stow 
The scissors, thimble, needles, pins, 
With which a woman pleasure wins, 

Although her sewing be so, so. 

With this beside thee, snip and stitch, 

Or be the fabric plain or rich; 

And when 'tis done, don't scatter round 
Thy working-tools with none to mind 'em, 

So half the time they can't be found; 

But place them where thou'rt sure to find 'em. 



96 LINES WITH PHIL OPE X NA FORFEITS. 

WITH A BOOK OF POEMS. 

Here in this volume see how well 

Feigned love the poet's verse may tell, 

How much his heart in anguish bleeds! 

How sweet he sings! How hard he pleads! 

And yet, 'tis all imagined there; 

His mistress is a thing of air. 

True feeling, through its own excess, 

Lacks power its ardor to express; 

And, while the poet's lines reveal 

All that he says, but does not feel, 

The lover's silence better may 

Show what he feels, but can not say. 



WITH A RARE PLANT. 

This plant the offshoot is of one 

Born where more warmly glows the sun, 

And, in this sterner clime of ours, 

Needs gentle warmth and genial showers. 

Give it thy smile; if that be won 

It needs no more life-giving sun: 

If languid it should still appear, 

Revive it with thy pitying tear. 



WITH A PACKET OF BON-BONS. 

' Sweets to the sweet," the old-time proverb says; 
But these are not to make thee any sweeter; 

Nor does a stanza written in thy praise, 

However fine the thought, or rare the metre, 
Contribute aught to make thy charms completer; 

But yet both come, the bon-bons and the verses; 

And I maintain my present none the worse is 



LINES WITH PHIL OPEN A FORFEITS. 97 

Because it pleases palate more than mind. 
Try verses first, then these, and thou shalt find 
However sweet the poet may have sung, 

His verses are but words, and these are action; 
Their numbers flow most sweetly on the tongue, 

And give one sense at least great satisfaction. 



WITH A NECKLACE AND CROSS. 

I send your forfeit (pleased and reckless 

At suffering such a pleasant loss) 
This unadorned and modest necklace, " 

Whereto there hangs a simple cross. 
Wear it, but not to heighten beauty, 

As foil to show your creamy neck; 
But rather to remind of duty, 

To strengthen faith, and wrong to check. 
Peace in your heart abide with virtue, 

And righteousness and honor kiss; 
Through life may slander never hurt you, 

Nor you know harder cross than this. 



WITH A KNIFE. 



' A knife cuts love," some people say — 
Mere modish love perhaps it may; 
The knife that cuts our love in two 
Will have much tougher work to do — 
Must cut your softness, worth and spirit, 
Down to the vulgar size of merit; 
The self-same blade from me must sever 
Sensation, judgment, sight, forever. 
Accept this knife, then, undeterred, 
And leave dull proverbs to the herd. 



LINES WITH PHILOPENA FORFEITS. 

If in a kiss — delicious treat ! — 
Your lips acknowledge the receipt, 
All cutting proverbs I disdain, 
Save only, " Cut and come again !" 



The following selected verses are also very applicable. 
WITH A FAN. 
Flavia the least and slightest toy 
Can with resistless art employ. 
This fan in meaner hands would prove 
An engine of small force in love: 
Yet she, with graceful air and mien, 
Not to be told, or safely seen, 
Diverts its wanton motion so, 
That it wounds more than Cupid's bow: 
Gives coolness to the matchless dame: 
To every other breast a flame. 



TO A LADY. 

PRESENTED WITH A RING, BEARING A HEART WITH THIS 
MOTTO — " STOP THIEF." 

Soon as I saw those beauteous eyes, 

You play'd a roguish part; 
You first enthrall'd me by surprise, 

Then robb'd me of my heart. 
Since thus you may now boast of two, 

Disputing is in vain; 
Render to me your own in lieu, 

Or give me mine again. 
If not, then you're by all confess'd 

The masterpiece of nature; 
I'll paint you to the world at best 

A double-hearted creature. 



CONGRATULATIONS FOR BIRTHDAYS. 90 

CONGRATULATIONS FOR BIRTHDAYS. 

The following original and selected verses furnish an 
elegant means of congratulating a lady on the anniversary 
of her birthday. 

TO A YOUNG LADY. 

Welcome the day that gave you birth! 

And may it often come to bless 
The maiden who adorns the earth 

With her surpassing loveliness. 

And may through all this life of yours 
The virtues that within you glow, 

And all that fond esteem assures, 
At every birthday stronger grow. 

So when the river dark be crossed, 

And you have reached its golden shore, 
They'll say one angel earth has lost, 

And heaven has gained one angel more. 



TO A YOUNG LADY. 

When Time was entwining the garland of years, 

Which to crown my beloved was given, 
Though some of the leaves might be sullied with tears, 

Yet the flowers were all gathered in heaven. 
And long may this garland be sweet to the eye, 

May its verdure forever be new ! 
Young Love shall enrich it with many a sigh, 

And Pity shall nurse it with dew. 

T. MOORE. 



CONGRATULATIONS FOR BIRTHDAYS. 
TO . 



' I love thee!" is a " cuckoo song," 
But yet methinks the honest lay, 
Though growing somewhat old and long, 
Is suited to this happiest day. 

If I were rich, I'd give thee gems, 

And place rare flowers on thy breast, 

With ruby buds and emerald stems, 

And all the world holds bright and best. 

Then if I only offer thee 

What craving hands care not to take; 
'Tis much to know my gift will be 

Held dear, but for the giver's sake. 

• I love thee;" aye! and love thee well; 
And fondly hope that many a year 
Will test the lie cold cynics tell, 

And prove that hearts can be sincere. 

I bless the day that shed its ray 

Of mortal light upon thy brow; 
And thank the One that lets thee stay 

To hear and trust my simple vow. . 
: ' I love thee!" and my heart will bear 

The seal which thou hast set forever; 
Truth weaves the silken chain I wear, 

That death, and death alone, will sever. 
I hail the day that gave to earth 

A heart so brave, so just, so high: 
Even as the glad bird notes the birth 

Of spring-time bloom, and spring-time sky. 
" I love thee!" is a " cuckoo song," 

But Heaven's echo lurks about it; 
And mayst thou hear it oft and long, 

And I be 'mid the first to shout it. 

ELIZA COOK. 



CONGRATULATIONS FOR BIRTHDAYS. 101 

TO A FRIEND. 

Merry words, merry words, ye come bursting around, 

Telling all that Affection can say; 
'Tis the music of heart-chords that dwells in the sound, 

" Many happy returns of the day!" 
The red cheek of the child is more rich in its glow, 

And the bright eye more swift in its ray, 
When his mates hail his birth in their holiday mirth, 

And drink "happy returns of the day!" 
The old man may smile while he listens, and feel 

He hath little time longer to stay; 
Still he liketh to hear from the lips that are dear, 

** Many happy returns of the day!" 

Though Misfortune is nigh, let the kind words float by, 

And something of Hope will spring up; 
That the hand of the Future may drain off the gall, 

And some nectar-drops yet fill our cup. 
If we bask in content while another short year 

Is recorded with eloquent bliss; 
How we prize the fond wishes, all gladly sincere, 

That come round with the soul-pledging kiss! 
Oh! our place in the world will be chilly and drear 

When our natal-tide passes away 
Without one to remember, or breathe in our ear, 

" Many happy returns of the day!" 

There are moments when Memory cruelly brings 

The grim spectres of Joy back again; 
When Sorrow malignantly sharpens her stings, 

Till we quiver and bleed with the pain. 
And the spirit will groan in such moments as this, 

When our loudly-hail'd hirthday shall fall; 
But among the warm, greetings there's one that we miss, 

And that one was the dearest of all. 



102 CONGRATULATIONS FOR BIRTHDAYS. 

What would we not give if the grave could restore 

The dear form it hath wrested away; 
If the voice of that lost one could wish us once more, 

" Many happy returns of the day?" 

There are moments when Truth and Devotion increase, 

Till they burn in the crucible breast 
With an'ardor and might that we knew not the light 

Of our smouldering feeling possess'd; 
And that flame will be vividly flashing out thus 

When we welcome returns of the time 
That gave some loved beings to life and to us; 

The sweet bells in Mortality's chime. 
Then a garland, a bumper, a dance and a feast, 

Let the natal-tide come when it may; 
Be it autumn or spring, a gay chorus we'll sing, 

" Many happy returns of the day'" 



LINES FOR WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES. 103 



LINES FOR WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES. 

In addition to the time-honored celebration of the Sil- 
ver and Golden wedding days, it is quite in fashion to no- 
tice the fifth, tenth and fifteenth anniversaries, under the* 
titles of Wooden, Tin and Crystal Weddings, the offerings 
in each case being in keeping with the title. The follow- 
ing original addresses are well adapted for the several occa- 
sions. 



FOR A WOODEN WEDDING. 

Five years ago when 'twas asked if she 
The wife of this young man here would be, 
And love and honor her husband well, 

She timidly said she would; 
And every friend of theirs can tell 

She kept that promise good. 
And hence because that promised " would" 
She made her will, as a good wife should, 
We're here to-night with our load of wood — 
With every kind of a wooden utensil, 
From a great round pail to a slender pencil, 
And each thing made, as it ought to be, 
Of other wood than the family tree. 

Five years have passed away since he 
Was asked if he'd cherish tenderly 
His wife, as the apple of his eye. 

He solemnly said he would; 
And there isn't a man who dares deny 

He made his promise good. 



104 LINES FOR WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES, 

And hence because that promised " would" 
He made his will, as a good man should, 
We're here to-night with our load of wood — 
Everything useful, nothing made ill, 
From a dozen of clothespins down to a ladle; 
And each thing made, as you well may see, 
Of other stuff than the family tree. 

Five years ago this loving pair 

Began their life with promise fair, 

And kept their pledges strong and right, 

As good folk ought to do; 
And we, their friends, are here to-night 

To bear them witness true. 
And though, perchance, some trifling thing 
Be found among the gifts we bring, 
Be sure that with the offering 
Came kindly feelings, earnest wishes, 
For length of life and fate auspicious, 
And hopes that frequent we may see 
New branches on the family tree, 



FOR A WOODEN WEDDING. 

Wood! 
In all of its shapes the thing is good ; 
Good in trees from the sun to shade, 
Good in planks on the bridges laid; 
Without it, little to make w T e're able, 
From a juryman's head to a house and stable. 

Hence 
Here is enough to build a fence: 
Spoons, a vision of mush revealing; 
Step-ladders, made to reach the ceiling; 
The nice fruit-basket they call a cradle — 
Clothespins, rollingpin, and a ladle; 



LINES FOR WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES. 105 

Stools, 
Such as they use in the country schools; 
Boxes, with nothing at all inside; 
Horses on which the clothes may ride; 
And things so many they'd tear my metre 
If I strove to make my list completer. 

Why 
Do all these things around us lie ? 
Why are so many guests assembled 
With a joy apparently undissembled, 
With pleasant words and manners gay, 
As though they were keeping a wedding-day? 

There 
You hit the target fair and square. 
Five years since a knot was tied 
That bound a happy groom and bride. 
They promise the tie shall still hold good, 
And lest it wouldn't we bring them wood. 

Laugh! 
There's too much care in the world by half. 
Health and wealth to the groom and bride; 
Honor to them for affection tried; 
And wider grow from year to year 
The circle of friends that holds them dear. 



FOR A TIN WEDDING. 
Ten years have elapsed — ah! how fast the years flee — 

Since our hostess and host, nothing loth, were made one; 
And it needs but a glance at their faces to see 

That their lives since that hour have run pleasantly on. 
And now, prizing wedlock all blessings above, 

They propose the Old Story again to begin, 
But the Lady, who married Hat first time for love, 

A second iimz marries, as usual, for Tin. 



106 LINES FOR WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES. 

'Neath their own vine and fig-tree while sitting content, 

Olive branches, well-trained ones, the couple surround, 
And let's hope this new union we've met to cement 

May with more of the like Sprigs of Olive be crowned. 
Far better than wealth's golden increase without 

Are these Nursery plants gently cared for within — 
Buds of promise, whose culture will yield, beyond doubt, 

Sweeter fruit than the Root of all Evil, called "Tin." 

Single life is a bore. When in Eden, alone, 

Adam dozed, of his own stupid company tired; 
But awaking and seeing his beautiful Bone, 

Nothing more on this earth that young fellow desired. 
A bachelor's Robinson-Crusoe-like life 

Seems to me to a prison-life nearly akin; 
A man's morally poor until blest with a wife, 

Though his bank-book may show that he's oceans of 
"Tin." 

Young man yet unwed, of your freedom don't boast; 

Know the married man's home is true Liberty Hall; 
If you question it, look at our hostess and host, 

And inform us now, which of them looks like a thrall? 
No, wedlock's a lock that, when Love holds the key, 

Is a Heaven on Earth to each pair it bolts in, 
And our friends here will tell you they would not be free 

For all California's auriferous "Tin." 

What say you now, young ladies — pray tell us the truth — 

Don't you think a good husband of good is the sum? 
Spinster life's well enough in the heyday of youth, 

But in age, let me tell you 'tis awfully glum. 
'Tis your duty to comfort our sex all you can, 

For yours was the cause of Original Sin; 
So each of you choose a good-looking young man, 

And don't mind, if he's worthy, the absence of "TIN." 



LINES FOR WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES. 107 

But enough of this doggerel — we've met here to-night 

For a reason that's worth a whole volume of rhyme — 
To see this true couple a second time plight 

The faith of two hearts that in unison chime. 
May the ten years of bliss that have over them rolled 

Be surpassed by the era this day ushers in, 
And forty years hence, should they live, with bright gold, 

Friendly hands shall replace these memorials of Tin. 

J. BARBER. 



The following selection is an excellent humorous address. 

FOR A TIN WEDDING. 

Imprimis, sound music, up curtain, begin! 

My story is short, for my subject is tin. 

I may find a moral to lengthen the tale — 

To a rhyme, thin ink helps me by writin' pale, 

Not tin in the sense of a synonym brief, 

For wealth, of man's aspirations the chief; 

Spondulix some call it, while others it name 

Stuff, sugar or ready, they all mean the same, 

Spoons, brads or the needful, rocks, rags and rhino, 

And terms as expressive you'll think of, I know. 

I wish I could show it at this time and place 

In condition possessive, but that's not the case; 

It's a short name for wealth and I am short too — 

Dame Fortune I hope has done better by you. 

But the tin that inspires my poor, simple muse, 

Is commonplace tin in its every-day use. 

From sources sublime come the marvels of art, 

But my inspiration's a tin-peddler's cart. 

Shall I mention some names my rambling thoughts find 

Of shapes wrought from ore in the Scilly Isles mined? 

Here's a chance for a pun ne'er thought of before, 

Ere tin is of use, its existence is o'er (ore.) , 



108 LINES FOR WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES. 

I hear some one mutter, " It's time to begin, 

If you mean to tell us what's made out of tin." 

There are toys for the children, horses and cars, 

Tin swords and tin trumpets, a foretaste of wars, 

Tin soldiers arranged in fierce "battle array, 

Brave fellows, perforce, they can't e'en run away. 

Tin pails for the milking, the joke of this is, 

Tin gives the maid her five o'clock kisses. 

Just look down the years to our grandmothers' day, 

When portly Dutch ovens held undisturbed sway 

Over platter and dipper, o'er kettle and pan, 

Making better display than a modern can-can. 

But why make the list any longer to-night ? 

I'll stop in a moment; 'twould hardly be right, 

Having shown you how tin may be sensibly used, 

To say nothing of ways in which it's abused. 

I think of a rusty and battered old pail, 

By cruel hands tied to a poor canine tail; 

How it clatters along as the sufferer flies 

In the wildest of fear from gamins' " Hi, hi's." 

I think of awaking too early some morn, 

Roused from slumber too soon by cursed fish-horn; 

Fall how rudely its notes on my poor tiny ear, 

(Remarks on tin ears are in order right hear,) 

But yours you have lent me I fear long enough 

To desire no more such nonsensical stuff; 

So let us be thoughtful a moment or two; 

Tin may have a lesson for me and for you. 

When it's shapely and bright, it finds a front place 

In our lives and our homes; but when o'er its face 

Spreads the rust of old age, and many a dent 

Mars the surface once smooth, and battered and bent 

Is its once graceful form, aside it is thrown; 

Not thus should we treat a good friend we have known 

When friendship was young and we learned how to prize 

The brightness it brought and the light in its eyes. 



LINES FOR WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES. 109 

Thought, trouble and years may all leave their rude trace 
In once sparkling eyes, on the once smiling face. 
Don't throw him aside without sigh or regret; 
Though his mood maybe changed, the past don't forget. 
May to none of us here e'er come the sad fate, 
By friends to be scorned like a rusty tin plate. 
That being the moral, I'd here end my verse, 
Since the ill that I've done but promises worse, 
But you'd like to know what I have not stated, 
That is to say, how my verse is related 
' To this night of nights— why, by marriage; no less; 
A fact that perhaps 'twas not easy to guess. 
To-night it's ten years since friend B. took a wife, 
A mortgage on joy and a new lease of life. 
If he had not married, we would not be here 
To read or to listen, I think the case clear. 
Friend B. and Dear Madame, my task is complete; 
What remains to be said is pleasure. I greet, 
To speak at the bidding of friends gathered here, 
Where mem'ries come thronging of fun and good cheer; 
To say that their hearts wish you measure complete 
Of all that life offers that's noble and sweet. 
To help you remember both them and this night, 
They bring you a gift which they give with delight; 
Be pleased to accept it, and take with it, too, 
The love and respect that they all feel for you. 
May your years be prolonged, with happiness blest, 
The labors of life find reward and sweet rest. 
Now silence. Sweet echoes of ten years ago 
Fill the air. How they swing to and fro, 
Tintinnabulate bells, that first wedding night, 
May thair echoes give promise of future delight. 
Fill your glasses, good friends, I offer a toast, 
Original surely, " Our hostess and host." 

CHAS. J. MILLER. 



110 LINES FOR WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES. 

FOR A CRYSTAL WEDDING. 

Fill the glass — if with wine, or with water, no matter — 

Each one to his taste; but fill up to the brim: 
Here's a health to our bridegroom. 'T were silly to flatter, 

Since no words may utter our friendship for him. 
Kind fortune upon him its joys ever shedding, 

All sorrow avoid him, all slander be dumb; 
All the gladness he feels at this gay crystal wedding 

Be repeated each year in the long years to come. 

Fill again, in a bumper, then rise in her honor: 

Here's a health to our matron, still fair as a bride, 
Whose virtue and worth sit so nobly upon her, 

Whose beauty and grace win our homage beside. 
With a mind full as clear as the crystal we give her, 

With a soul full as warm as the summer noon clear; 
Our hearts at her feet at her will we deliver, 

Better-half as she is of the best fellow here. 

Fill again to them both — to the couple renewing 

The vows of their youth in maturity's prime; 
May they still journey on in the way they're pursuing, 

Where flowers grow to cover the footprints of Time. 
When age sprinkles silver on locks that are thinning, 

And wrinkles appear to chase dimples away, 
May their love be as ardent as at its beginning, 

And their hearts be as young and as light as to-day. 



FOR A CRYSTAL WEDDING. 

The years of wedlock gayly pass 
When hearts are joined with hands, 

And Love's bright sunshine gilds the glass 
That holds Time's fleeting sands. 

The happy pair we greet to-day 

For fifteen years have held their way, 



LINES FOR WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES. Ill 

Content in Hymen's bands, 
And we are here in friendship bold, 
A mirror to their bliss to hold. 

Reflected on yon silvered plate, 

Their faces they may see — 
Reflection never comes to late 

With couples that agree; 
And if, when thrice five years have sped, 
A pair resolve to be re-wed, 

No stronger proof need we, 
That by the mirror of the past 
They read their future, yet unglassed. 

A child, yon crystal, frail as bright, 

Could shiver with a blow, 
And selfish hearts by cause as slight 

Are severed oft we know; 
But selfless love and- tender faith 
Are strong, ay, stronger far, than death; . 

And hearts that feel their glow 
In good or ill are ever true — 
And such are these unchanging two. 

J. BARBER. 

FOR A SILVER WEDDING. 

A blessing on the wedded pair 

Who prom'sed each that each should share 

The other's happiness or woe, 

Just five and twenty years ago, 

And now, when years have passed away, 

Enjoy their silver wedding-day. 

Long may they live to all to prove 

That marriage is no foe to love, 

And that, to bless their added lives, 

Their youth's affection still survives. 



112 LINES FOR WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES. 

To them all joys that fortune sends, 

Health, wealth, content and troops of friends; 

And, may the kindly fates decree 

That, till the day that all must see, 

When from their tenements of clay 

Their mingled souls shall pass away, 

Their years shall be all summers, where 

Roses and violets scent the air, 

And song-birds make perpetual tune; 

With every month a honeymoon. 



FOR A SILVER WEDDING. 

Ring, silvern bells, for a happy time! 

Ring with a rich, melodious chime 

For the bridegroom in his manhood's prime, 

And the bride in her ripened beauty! 
Ring for the pair whose love appears, 
After these five and twenty years, 
A thing of joy and not of fears, 

A pleasure as well as duty. 

Talk if you will of the "Silver Bill!" 
Why, here is a silvern Jack and Jill, 
Who are sliding gently down the hill — 

May they reach its bottom slowly! 
And from the friends who round them throng 
Arise warm prayers and wishes strong 
That their lives may happy be and long, 

And crowned with an ending holy. 

Ring, silvern bells, with all your might! 
Ring in all joys in woe's despite! 
Ring in all innocent delight! 
Their horn of plenty heap it! 



LINES FOR WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES. 113 

Ring that a kindly fortune may, 
Years five and twenty from to-day, 
Their golden wedding-day display, 
And we be there to keep it. 



FOR A GOLDEN WEDDING. 

How many, since these two were wed, 
Of those who join their hands for life, 

Or mourn their mates, or both are dead, 
Or feel the living death of strife! 

These, after fifty varied years — 
Just half a century since the twain 

First shared each other's smiles and tears — 
Utter their well-kept vows again. 

The torch that Hymen lit before 
Still throws as pure and holy light 

Their well-proved truth and fondness o'er 
As on their olden wedding-night. 

Time touches gently here the pair, 
And cheers them kindly on their way, 

And casts upon their silver locks 
A flood of light to gild the grey. 

Peaceful their blameless lives they live, 
Cherished by friends' and kinsfolk's love, 

Waiting till happy fate shall give 
A golden wedding far above. 



114 ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 



ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 

From the very earliest times in English history the 
fourteenth of February seems to have been dedicated to 
St. Valentine; Chaucer speaks of it as an old institution 
even in his time. The custom of celebrating this day 
appears to be founded on the fact that the birds seek their 
mates about this time, and young men and maidens 
imitate their example. 

In former times the day was celebrated in a manner 
calculated to engender sentiments which later might ripen 
into betrothal. Lots were drawn, and couples thus acci- 
dentally formed had opportunities of displaying mutual 
attentions which might be taken in jest, or might lead to 
closer ties. In some cases an interchange of presents 
between the members of each couple was the rule. Later, 
the youths made a present to their lady Valentines. 

At the present time, St. Valentine's day is divested of 
all special formality, and the only thing that marks the 
day is the sending of anonymous communications, some 
elegantly prepared, others humorous, and others, too, 
more Or less offensive and impertinent. In the following 
original Valentine verses there are appropriate lines for 
all trades and occupations and other positions in life. 
Although some of them are humorous, none of them con- 
tain anything that could be offensive to the most fastidious 
taste. 



ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES 115 

TO A LADY. 
Spring has not come — why should we wait 
Until the birds around us mate? 
This is the good old-fashioned day 
When hearts anticipate the May, 
And choose a friend and champion dear, 
To serve them truly for a year. 
Follow the fashion frank and free, 
And fix your friendly choice on me, 
And give me rapture half-divine 
By owning me your Valentine. 



TO A LADY. 

They blame me that I love thee so, 

Though gaining no return; 
They know not that it eases woe 

To let this passion burn. 
And though of love and tenderness 

Thou showest yet no sign, 
Still lingers hope that you may bless 

Your faithful Valentine. 



TO A LADY. 
This is the day in sunnier lands 
When birds, at nature's sweet commands, 
Love thrilling through their feathered breasts, 
Select their mates, and build their nests. 
For them our weather is too chill; 
But that for us depends on will. 
So for that very cogent reason, 
Suppose, my dear, we " rush the season;'' 
Take pity on this woe of mine, 
And take me for your Valentine. 



116 ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 

TO A LADY. 
Who has not seen my lady fair, 
Exempt may be from love and care*. 
But this much ignorance is his — 
He knows not what perfection is. 
So sweet her manner, fair her face, 
Her beauty heightened by her grace, 
Secured that man from fate malign - 
Whom she accepts as Valentine. 



TO A YOUNG LADY WITH RED HAIR. 

In the palmy time and olden — 

Days of the severe antique — 
Locks like thine were known as golden 

To the coldly-classic Greek; 
And their bright and ruddy splendor 

Cast a strange, enchanting ray 
On the milky skin and tender, 

As it does on thine to-day. 
Threads of sunlight, hearts ensnaring, 

They have caught and fastened mine; 
I shall die in woe despairing, 

Save you be my Valentine. 



TO A LADY. 

" I give thee all! I can no more, 
Though poor the offering be" — 

Thus sang the enamored youth of yore 
In the days of chivalry. 

Young men, who in these fast days live, 
Don't think their offerings poor; 

Their noble selves they boldly give — 
What — a — can a girl ask more? 



ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 117 

I would not pine, like those of old; 

'Tis not a manly course — 
Nor would I be upstart and bold, 

For that is ten times worse. 

I'd rather far be deemed sincere, 

And my affection prove 
By offering her I hold most dear 

A deep and honest love. 

A love whose depth is not expressed 

In weak, unmanly moans; 
But simply, honestly confessed 

In soft and heart-felt tones. 

Bid me then hope. Accept from me 

A heart that's wholly thine — 
Tell me that you consent to be 

My own, my Valentine. 



TO A BLACKSMITH. 

The sparks from your anvil you scatter, 

And when you have finished your labors, 
Just after the dark you come out as a spark, 

And bewilder your female neighbors. 
The roar and the clamor of bellows and hammer 

Make music to ears of mine, 
And it seems to me I should happy be 

If you were my Valentine. 



TO A BAKER. 

You knead your dough, I need your love- 
Let both our needs in one combine* 

No more to fondness crusty prove, 
But be my well-bread Valentine. 



118 ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 

TO A FARMER'S DAUGHTER. 

Envy not the belles of fashion, 

Moving proud and scornful by; 
They can ne'er create a passion 

Like that kindled by your eye. 
Brighter beams your simple beauty, 

Through the health by labor won, 
From the consciousness of duty 

Nobly met and fairly done. 
They may find mere fops to woo them, 

Whatsoe'er their hopes design; 
It must be a man who wins thee 

To become his Valentine. 



TO A BUTCHER. 



Well bred or not, you are a sweet-bread man, 
And though you may not gamble, yet your plan 
Is to make steaks— at least, whene'er you can. 

Though business brisket is when meat is prime, 
You herd with learned men of every clime — 
Or you at least sausages many a time. 
Then with your cleaver cleave to love of mine, 
But-cheer me with your tender-loin so fine — 
'Tis meat that you should be my Valentine. 



TO A CARPENTER. 

A wondrous man you sure must be; 
They say you saw as well as see; 
And, though the truth you always tell, 
Each story you can hatchet well. 
Plane ways are yours, and you have skill 
That adze to your success at will; 



ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 119 

And if you gouge and chisel, why 
Tis but in wood such work you try. 
How happy were that maiden who 
Mitre true lover find in you! 
Mortice not now my plan to rhyme, 
Nor say what tenon-saw one time; 
But that so spruce you are, I pine — 
Oak aunt you be my Valentine? 



TO A SEAMSTRESS. 
Ah! had I but the magic skill, 
To metamorphosis at will, 
I'd change unto the needle which 
You ply at every artful stitch; 
For that without reproach may spy 
Your sweet face with its little eye, 
And do it with impunity — 
It has no heart to lose like me. 
Yet, after all, I do not know; 
A needle's life is but sew-sew; 
It only moves when it is sped; 
It cannot even drop a thread; 
While I have power to drop this line 
To say I am your Valentine. 



TO A SHOEMAKER. 

Wax not faint with labor, neighbor; 

Peg away all woes to heal; 
Nor at this epistle bristle, 

Since my love I must reveal. 
Awl my sweet affection tender, 

In dis-stitches here I send, 
Awl my sole to thee surrender, 



120 ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES, 

Faithful to the very end. 
Winter now is nearly past; 

Spring insteps here at the last; 
Then when some may seek the larches, 

I shall choose the pleasant rows, 
Where, devoid of leafy arches, 

Low the branchless boot tree grows; 
There insole so sad I'll ponder 

On what happiness were mine 
Did you with me loving wander 

As my faithful Valentine. 



TO A HARNESS-MAKER. 
You bridles make — no bridal yet is yours, 

Surcingle still you are, and sit alone; 
No traces of the passion that secures 

Joy in men's hearts in yours has yet been known. 
Will you then never buckle to a wife, 
But go in single harness all your life? 
Curb your disdain — a bit of sense demands 
All men to put themselves in marriage bands. 
Raise not your collar at these lines of mine, 
But haste to own yourself my Valentine. 



TO A MASON. 



Walk on the level, act upon the square, 
Lay the foundation of your life with care; 

A single life's a hollow wall and wrong — 
^.JLt has no binder, so it can't be strong. 

Your course, however you may use the line, 
I trowel not be straight in its design — 

(Hammer-cy on me! how one's fancies throng!) 
And you are my loving Valentine. 



ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 121 

JTO A SOLDIER. 

How sheepishly you stand and odd; 
You must be one of the awkward squad. 
Eyes left! — Yes, you'll be left there yet 
Among old bachelors — awful set! 
Eyes right ! — Just so, but you're not right, 
And badly seem to use your sight. 
Forward! — You are too backward, sir, 
And don't regard your officer. 
March ! — into my affections, please. 
Halt! awkward fellow! Stand-at-ease! 
'Ten-shim ! now mark for satisfaction, 
First word is caution, next is action. 
Present arms ! good. Salute! well done — 
"lis thus by practice skill is won. 
You now have furlough — by the way, 
If challenged, " Love " is countersign; 
And this the order — " Every day 
Report yourself as Valentine." 



TO AN APOTHECARY. 

Exert the utmost of your skill, 
And this prescription quickly fill; 
Take the best love, at least a pound — 
True love, and honest, pure and sound; 
An ounce of fervent admiration, 
With not a grain of hesitation; 
Modest assurance quantum suff. — 
vVith me a grain will be enough — 
Dissolve in sighs at least a score, 
And treat the mixture cum calor. " 
Bring it where sick for thee I pine, 
And bring it as my Valentine. 



122 ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES 

TO A SCHOOL-MISTRESS. 

My pretty darling, that from morn till night 

Rules many children — and their copies too — 
And sees that they, lest wrong they do, do write- 

Ah! do not parse me coldly, nor construe 
These punning lines as other than they be — 
A mask to hide my ardent love for thee. 
Teach me; but not to cipher, write or read — 

I sigh for thee enough already — teach 
How I shall in pursuit of thee succeed, 

How use to gain thee all the parts of speech; 
Come and be mistress in this school of mine, 
And find a pupil in thy Valentine. 



TO A MUSIC-TEACHER. 
B sharp, and if A flat should sue to thee, 
C natural, and bid him quiet be; 
But when I woo thee, filled with feeling fond, 
Let a quick movement of thy heart respond, 
And for my true affection's just reward, 
Let our two souls create a perfect chord, 
And so in harmony our hearts entwine, 
To bless thy fond and faithful Valentine. 



TO A TAILOR. 
Press well your suit — it seams you've fears, 

Sew modest is your sense of fitness; 
But one, whose thread of life no shears 

Has dipt, would to your worth bear witness. 
Her love, upon your merits baste, 
(Such goose is she) on you has placed 
Her hopes that you may yet incline 
To own yourself her Valentine. 



ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 123 

TO A LAWYER. 

IN THE COURT OF LOVE'S PLEAS. 

Valentine, Plaintiff', ) 



Trespass. 
Defendant. ) 



A lawyer, you! A nice one — very! 

Here, this fourteenth of February, 

Listen, while I, with agitation, 

File in this suit my declaration. 

I give you notice now to plead 

Within eight days unto this screed, 

Or judgment, for my wrongs concentred 

Sec reg., of record shall be entered; 

And, as you have refused to marry, 

Deny a writ of certiorari; 

You have no right to such resort, 

For you have shown contempt of court, 

'Gainst matrimony dared to rail, 

And shunned the best of fees, female. 

And when my judgment comes to hand 

A capias I will straight demand, 

Or some contrivance of the sort 

As writ to bring a man to court; 

Unless you instantly resign 

Yourself to be my Valentine. 



TO A PLUMBER. 
In writing thus to you my views, 
'Tis no soft solder that I use, 
Although, like water-pipes that leak, 
My eyes in tears their weakness speak; 
I merely say that fond affection 
Between our hearts should make connection, 
And both in one great main combine, 
My stout and sturdy Valentine. 



124 ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 

TO A MACHINIST. 

They say you are very expert at your trade, 

In handling- your file, or your hammer clinking, 
But you never yet a machine have made 

As strange as the human heart, I'm thinking. 
It is not alone that the blood it pumps, 

For that's a mechanical function merely, 
But because it so painfully musical thumps, 

When the one is nigh that it loves most dearly. 
And hence it is I suggest, you see, 

Lest my heart's machinery get into trouble, 
That you shall henceforth my true Valentine be, 

When your woes shall be half, and your joys 
shall be double. 



TO A CABINET-MAKER. 
Beneath your skillful hands so quickly grow 
Table and whatnot, sofa and bureau, 
That it suggests to me the notion whether 
The glue of love could hold, our hearts together. 
Sofa you go in making whatnots, why 
Should you a matrimonial knot not tie? 
Notable question, showing my design, 
Unvarnished, plain, to make you Valentine. 



TO A DRESS-MAKER. 
Let me bask in your smiles, for so much I adore you, 

My earnest affection must surely fichu; 
Don't flounce in dis-gusset, but let me implore you — 

Cut me not on the bias whatever you do. 
My gore would not please, did I waist it before you 

By spoiling my shape with a bodkin malign; 
Neither cut me nor baste me, you dear little sewer, you; 

But fit me to be your own true Valentine. 



ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 125 

TO A PAPER OR BOOK-FOLDER. 

I've seen you at your duty, 
In your unconscious beauty, 
Your tedious labor bent on, 
Your ceaseless task intent on; 

While throbbed this heart of mine. 

The paper never lingers 
Within your shapely fingers, 
But quiet lets you hold it, 
And drop it when you fold it, 

And makes no show nor sign. 

Ah! were I but that paper 
Within those fingers taper, 
I could not quiet rest me; 
I'd press them when they pressed me, 
I would, with pure design. 

But though I do not rest there, 
To be so bent and pressed there, 
My heart is yours — you hold it; 
Be careful how you fold it, 
My charming Valentine. 



TO A PAINTER. 
Don't let this missive sweet your feelings roil, 
For you don't in distemper paint, but oil; 
Ah! were that not so, happy the design, 
For surely of your love I'd kalsomine; 
All men to Cupid lean ere life be gone, 
Beginning when they put the first coat on, 
Which is but priming for the work to come; 
And yet their after days it colors some. 
So take some panes to show the love you bear 
Is even benign, your, courage putty fair; 



126 ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 

You will not as a painter die and make no sign; 
Brush bashfulness away, and be my Valentine. 



TO A MILLINER. 
Can I help writing a sonnet 

When my eyes feast on the skill in her 
Fingers, at work on a bonnet, 

Beautiful, sweet little milliner ? 
See, as she sits at her duty, 

Watched by her ardent adorer, 
Dropping some part of her beauty 

On the fair fabric before her. 
Grow into poetry laces, 

Ribbons, and feathers, and satin, 
As her taste chooses their places — 

And my heart, too — she weaves that in. 
Ah! if the tender good-will in her 

Might her love to me incline, 
Happy I'd be with that milliner, 

Blest as her true Valentine. 



TO A WHEELRIGHT. 
You do not want to be a " hub," 
So some folk spoke, and there's the rub. 
Would you with single felloes herd? 
You'd tire of such a life absurd. 
Let Cupid's shaft once strike your heart, 
A spring of love in you will start; 
The side-bar broken you will feel 
An interest in another's wheel, 
And quoting Shenstone, Moore, and Byron, 
Sigh for a priest and coupling-iron. 
To lead you to such fortune fine, 
I pick you out for Valentine. 



ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 127 

TO A PHYSICIAN. 
Great faith have I in skill like yours 
Which full immunity secures — 
If your strict orders they don't twist 'em — 
To all deranged in mind or system. 
Now, physically well enough, 
With constitution strong and tough, 
I suffer in a tender part- 
There is some trouble with my heart. 
A chill, a shiver, a feeling queer, 
Comes over it when you are near; 
And evermore the thought my head's in 
That it requires a powerful medicine, 
To calm its strange, erratic motion, 
And that no powder, pill or potion, 
But this prescription (to continue) 
Recipe doctor Valentinio. 



TO A FACTORY GIRL. 

When the great bell sounds in the morning, 

Giving the work-hands warning 

The day" has begun with its labor, 

You go with many a neighbor, 

As the rest to their toil are going, 

With the stream to the great mills flowing, 

And with you goes heart of mine. 
So true to yourself and to duty; 
So fair, yet unconscious of beauty; 
So modest, and tender, and artless, 
You can ne'er to my homage be heartless; 
But perceiving how fondly I love you, 
Permit my warm pleading to move you 

To own me your true Valentine. 



128 ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 

TO A GARDENER. 
Pink of perfection in my eyes, 
But more in plants than women wise; 
Wrapt in your flowers, you cannot see 
That roses on her cheeks may be. 
Take care! you'll find, when love you'd start, 
No bottom heat within her heart; 
And, though you plant a declaration, 
And water it with protestation, 
And line it with an exclamation 
That sounds exceeding like " carnation!" 
You'll hear her say, with bitter scoff— 
" Begonia are too late! be off!" 
But, no! at once amend your plan — 
Gunnera cereus as you can, 
Bring her your tulips red and fine, 
And you shall be her Valentine. 



TO A BOOK-KEEPER. 
How often to myself I've said it — 

" My heart is his," and so 'tis plain 
Love in your journal should have credit — 

You debit loss and credit gain. 
Now when you made the original entry 

Within my heart, I do not know — 
If it were years, or half a cent'ry, 

Or only some few weeks ago; 
But make a trial balance fairly, 

And then distinctly 'twill be shown 
You've gained from me, and kept it squarely, 

All love that once was mine to own. 
Therefore, accounts to balance, render 

Your loving in exchange for mine; 
Our vouchers each to each we'll tender, 

And you shall be my Valentine. 



ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 129 

TO A GROCER. 
A fig for reason why for you I sigh, 

And why you grow, sir, dear each day to me; 
Love turns the scales — and who knows how or why? — 

Enough to know you suit me to a tea. 
I send this now, you'd like it buy and buy; 

To sell and not to buy is my design; 
And should my price (a ring) be not too high, 

Give me short wait, and be my Valentine. 



TO A SALESMAN. 

So deftly handling silk and laces, 
Before the gazers to entice 'em, 

Or goods restoring to their places, 

Disturbed by shoppers — "just to price 'em.' 

Still bland, obliging, and good-humored, 
However shopping folk annoy you; 

Hoping you may be soon — 'tis rumored- 
Partner of those who now employ you, 

I think 'twould vary your condition, 
Some business in a different line, 

And so suggest a new position 
To serve me as my Valentine. 



TO A PRINTER. 
If at the case you stand and get 
With proper care this copy set — 
Which you can do, by all reports, 
Unless you're really out of sorts— 
You'll find, my nimble-fingered lad, 
I am the best take to be had. 
But should you scorn my tender sigh, 
You'll knock my senses into pi; 



130 ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 

A shooting-stick my brains shall spatter, 
And fill my form with leaded matter — 
No foreman — no! not five men then 
Could e'er make up my form again; 
Therefore let this, my fond confession, 
Make on your heart a fair impression, 
To justify this work of mine, 
And prove my well-set Valentine. 



TO A REPORTER. 

If every editor thinks that he 
A great gun of the press must be, 
You should be, as his trusty second, 
A literary pistol reckoned; 
Because around the town you rifle 
What news you can of every trifle 
Of crime, or accident, or sport, 
Then going off you make report. 
Just note, with other items new, 
That high promotion falls on you: 
Detailed for duty in the line 
Of service as my Valentine. 



TO A BOOK-BINDER. 
Raised bands that other men submit to 
You shun, and Cupid's bondage ditto. 
So far from loving ways you keep, 
'Twould seem that you are bound in sheep, 
Or do not seek a better-half, 
Because you choose to be half-calf. 
Ah! could I stamp with cunning art 
My name in gold upon your heart, 
Gilt-edged my happiness would shine, 
Bound in good style, your Valentine. 



ORIGINAL VALENTINE VERSES. 131 

TO A TANNER. 
I know if I should be your bride 

Your firm protection would not fail me, 

And, if a foeman dared assail me, 
You'd skin him first, then tan his hide. 
I know you think persistently 

That nothing is on earth like leather; 

But if we twain should wed together, 
I wonder if you'd leather me. 
Lest that be vat you may design, 

To words of love I give denial, 

And take you merely here on trial, 
To test you frrst as Valentine. 



TO AN IRON-FOUNDER. 
Cast in a mould from which a man was turned, 
No wonder that your fitting trade you learned; 
But casting everything in iron so much, 
Your heart grew hard and callous to love's touch. 
It will not melt, however strong the blast; 
Relent, and be your future with me cast. 
Let your soul fuse, and flow into the mould 
Of a strong love, there fix as both grow old; 
So you may say of me, "I found her mine, 
And found all joy as her fond Valentine." 



TO A SHOP-GIRL. 
I saw you in the shop this week; 
Of love I did not dare to speak; 
I asked for gloves — unsuited there, 
I could not find a fitting pair: 
A reason plain for that, you see — 
I sought a glove without the g j 
And at your calm and quiet mood, 
On needles all the time I stood. 



132 SELECTED VALENTINE VERSES. 

You called — the cash-boy came to you- 
Ah! would I. were a cash-boy too, 
To serve, in that or any line, 
Your will, my charming Valentine 



TO A COOK. 



The heat which daily you must face, 
Shows not in temper nor in face; 
You spit your meat till it is done, 
But spit no spite on any one. 
Then what the fault upon my part, 
That you should daily roast my heart, 
And keep me in a constant stew? 
In turn for love I cite to you, 
Oh! give a little sigh to me, 
And, when this missive plain you see, 
Responsive to the tender line, 
Acknowledge me your Valentine. 



The three following are selections from eminent poets, 
beautifully suitable for the occasion. 

She that is fair, though never vain or proud, 

More fond of home than fashion's changing crowd; 

Whose taste refined even female friends admire, 

Dress'd not for show, but rob'd in neat attire; 

She who has learn'd, with mild forgiving breast, 

To pardon frailties, hidden or confessed; 

True to herself, yet willing to submit, 

More sway'd by love than ruled by worldly wit: 

Though young, discreet — though ready, ne'er unkind; 

Blest with no pedants, but a woman's mind; 

She wins our hearts, toward her our thoughts incline, 

So at her door go leave my Valentine. 

JAMES T. FIELD. 



SELECTED VALENTINE VERSES. 133 

Go, Valentine, and tell that lovely maid 

Whom fancy still will portray to my sight 
How here I linger in this sullen shade, 

This dreary gloom of dull, monastic night. 
Say that, from ev'ry joy of life remote, 

At evening's closing hour I quit the throng, 
Listening in solitude the ring-dove's note, 

Who pours like me her solitary song. 
Say that her absence calls the sorrowing sigh, 

Say that of all her charms I love to speak, 
In fancy feel the magic of her eye, 

In fancy view the smile illume her cheek, 
Court the lone hour when silence stills the grove, 
And heave the sigh of memory and of love. 

SOUTKEY. 



TO A LADY, 

WITH A PAIR OF GLOVES, ON VALENTINE'S DAY. 

Brimful of anger, not of love, 

The champion sends his foe one glove ; 

But I, who have a double share 

Of softer passion, send a pair. 

Nor think it, dearest Celia, cruel 

That I invite you to a duel; 

Ready to meet you, face to face, 

At any time, in any place; 

Nor will I leave you in the lurch 

Tho' you should dare to name the church. 

There come equipp'd with all your charms, 

The ring and license are my arms ; 

With these I mean your power to try, 

And meet my charmer tho' I die. 

VILLIERS, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, 



134 SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

The following verses are selected from various authors 
as appropriate for insertion in albums; they include a very- 
great variety of subjects and styles. # 

Worthy of the first place, and rising superior to all, 
both in general favor and beauty of sentiment, where the 
relations of the parties permit of its use, is simply the word 

"MIZPAH," 

accompanied by the signature of the writer. This single 
word contains one of the most beautiful sentiments in 
which Holy Writ abounds; its meaning is explained in 
Genesis, chap, xxxi, verse 49, in these words: 

" The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent 
one from another." 

This would not be quite appropriate if used between mere 
acquaintances, but there is nothing that can be chosen to 
convey a more heart-felt interest between friends, or even 
those bound together by tenderer ties. 



HUMOROUS LINES FOR AN ALBUM. 

Albums are records, kept by gentle dames, 
To show us that their friends can write their names; 
That Miss can draw, or brother John can write 

'Sweet lines," or that they know a Mr. White. 
The lady comes, with lowly grace upon her, 

' 'Twill be so kind," and " do her book such honor;" 
We bow, smile, deprecate, protest, read o'er 
The names to see what has been done before, 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 135 

Wish to say something wonderful, but can't, 
And write, with modest glory, "William Grant." 
Johnson succeeds, and Thomson, Jones, and Clarke, 
And Cox with an original remark 
Out of the Speaker; — then come John's " sweet lines," 
Fanny's " sweet airs," and Jenny's "sweet designs:" 
Then Hobbs, Cobbs, Dobbs, Lord Strut, and Lady Brisk, 
And, with a flourish underneath him, Fisk. - 

Alas! why sit I here, committing jokes 
On social pleasures and good-humor'd folks, 
That see far better with their trusting eyes, 
Than all the blinkings of the would-be wise? 
Albums are, after all, pleasant inventions, 
Make friends more friendly, grace one's good intentions, 
Brighten dull names, give great ones kinder looks, 
Nay, now and then produce right curious books, 
And make the scoffer (now the case with me) 
Blush to look round on deathless company. 

LEIGH HUNT. 



LINES FOR AN ALBUM. 
They say that Love had once a book 

(The urchin likes to copy you) 
Where all who came the pencil took, 

And wrote, like us, a line or two. 

'Twas Innocence, the maid divine, 
Who kept this volume bright and fair, 

And saw that no unhallowed line 

Or thought profane should enter there. 

Beneath the touch of Hope, how soft, 
How light the magic pencil ran! 

Till Fear would come, alas! as oft, 

And, trembling, close what Hope began. 



136 SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

A tear or two had dropped from Grief; 

And Jealousy would, now and then, 
Ruffle in haste some snowy leaf, 

Which Love had still to smooth again. 

But oh ! there was a blooming boy 

Who often turned the pages o'er, 
And wrote therein such words of joy 

As all who read still sighed for more. 

And Pleasure was this spirit's name; 

And though so soft his voice and look, 
Yet Innocence, whene'er he came, 

Would tremble for her spotless book! 

For oh! 'twould make you weep to see 
How Pleasure's honeyed hand had torn 

And stained the page where Modesty 
A rose's bud had freshly drawn. 

And Fancy's emblems lost their glow; 

And Hope's sweet lines were all defaced; 
And Love himself could hardly know 

What Love himself had lately traced. 

Beware of Pleasure and his lures; 

In virtue's ranks he finds no place. 
Those pleasures only should be yours 

That spring from thoughts and deeds of grace. 
Adapted from MOORE. 

TO SWEET SIXTEEN. 
I wish the bud would never blow! 
'Tis prettier and purer so: 
It blushes through its bower of green, 
And peeps above the mossy screen, 
So timidly I cannot bear 
To have it open to the air, 

MISS OSGOOD. 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 137 

LINES WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM. 
As o'er the cold sepulchral stone 

Some name arrests the passer-by, 
Thus, when thou view'st this page alone, 

May mine attract thy pensive eye! 

And when by thee that name is read, 
Perchance in some succeeding year, 

Reflect on me as on the dead, 

And think my heart is buried here. 



FOR AN ALBUM. 
Here is one leaf reserved for me, 
From all thy sweet memorials free; 
And here my simple song might tell 
The feelings thou must guess so well. 
But could I thus within thy mind 
One little vacant corner find, 
Where no impression yet is seen, 
Where no memorial yet has been; 
O, it should be my sweetest care 
To write my name forever there! 



TO A LADY WHO SINGS. 

When winsome Bessie, beautiful and young, 
Rolls the soft accents from her tuneful tongue, 
In admiration stand the list'ners round, 
And feel the spell of beauty and of sound. 
The miser, rapt, forgets the gainful plan — 
The beau his compliments, and the coquette her fan. 
E'en Annie's tongue yields to her wond'ring ear, 
And deigns for once another's voice to hear. 
Such power has music when with beauty joined; 
Not to be charmed, is to be deaf and blind. 



138 SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

TO MARY. 

At your command these artless numbers flow 
(Tho' verdant laurels ne'er will crown my brow); 
Unskillful, yet submissive, I obey, 
Pleased with my task, since you direct my lay. 
O, may my lines an easy freedom gain- 
Truthful each note, and gentle every strain. 

When heav'nly Beauty's charms had blest the earth, 
The tuneful sisters soon derived their birth. 
Beauty first taught to love; the soft'ning flame 
With tender thoughts inspired the melting frame; 
From tender thoughts a softer language rose, 
And rugged prose in softer numbers flows. 
Beauty like yours! when sense and virtue joined 
To perfect features, an exalted mind- 
In your sweet form all outward charms we meet, 
In you each virtue shines, and makes the whole complete. 

I hate the toy whose whole perfection's said 

In this short praise: "What charming white and red!" 

To such mere shadows what could being give? 

An artist's pencil caused these forms to live. 

Some fair, 'tis true, have every moving grace, 

Each faultless feature triumphs in their face; 

But say, have they then nothing else to boast, 

And to a picture dwindles then the toast? 

Yes, they can dance, and laugh, and scream, and faint, 

And by their follies prove they're more than paint. 

Would you, ye fair, have men of sense approve, 

And be the worthy objects of their love? 

To beauty you must add the charm of sense, 

The sweets of temper, virtue's influence. 

O, Mary! let the fair your pattern view; 

Your nobler aims each fair one should pursue, 

And not to look and move, but think and speak like you. 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 139 

TO A LADY IN TEARS. 

When you disconsolate appear, 
And we behold the falling tear, 
Your beauty shining thro' distress, 
So strongly does each charm impress, 
That with resistless power it kills; 
Makes tears more fatal e'en than smiles; 
The wounds you feel now wound us more 
Than all the wounds you gave before. 
We scarce endured the former smart; 
But now, pierced with a deadly dart, 
Our destiny in vain we fly; 
For when you bleed, who must not die? 



TO A LADY. 

W^here charms like yours, dear lady, shine, 

What heart secure remains? 
Cupid must now his bow resign, 

And own by them he reigns. 
But while such coldness guards your heart, 

Love lights in vain his fire; 
Despairing to be further blest, 

We only must admire. 
Thus northern regions, that employ 

The sun's too distant light, 
Altho' his warmth they ne'er enjoy, 

Yet still adore his light. 



TO LAURA. 



Ah me! how deep the poison lies 
Which late I drank from Laura s eyes! 
It burns, it spreads; each tortured vein 
Throbs with the agonizing pain. 



140 SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

Oft to the woods, at close of day, 
The star of eve. directs my way. 
To fairy forms my woes I tell, 
And mingle plaints with Philomel. 
Sweet bird! trill out thy notes so clear, 
And waft the sound to Laura s ear, 
And tell her, since like thee I pine, 
To hear thy woes and pity mine. 



TO LIZZIE. 
Let others sing the toils of state, 
That ceaseless urge the aspiring great; 
Others again, in pompous verse, 
The Warrior's actions may rehearse; 
Me the soft god of soft desires 
A gentler theme of verse inspires; 
Of Lizzie's charms he bids me sing, 
And strike for her the trembling string. 
Forgive me, gentle god of love, 
If once I disobedient prove — 
Of Lizzie 's charms how can I sing? 
Too low my voice; too weak the string! 



TO DELIA. 
With leaden foot time creeps along, 

While Delia is away; 
With her, nor plaintive was the song, 

Nor tedious was the day. 

Ah! envious power! reverse my doom, 

Nor double thy career; 
Strain every nerve, stretch every plume, 

And rest them when she's here. 

RICHARD JAGO. 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 14 

TO CHLOE. 
When, Ckloe, I confess my pain, 

In gentle words you pity show; 
But gentle words are all in vain: 

Such gales my flame but higher blow. 
Ah, Chloe! would you cure the smart 

Your conquering eyes have keenly made, 
Yourself upon my bleeding heart, 

Yourself, fair Chloe, must be laid. 
Thus, for the viper's sting we know 

No surer remedy is found 
Than to apply the torturing foe, 

And squeeze his venom on the wound. 

DR. KENRICK. 



TO CUPID. 
Thou, who didst never see the light, 
Nor know'st the pleasure of the sight, 
But, always blinded, canst not say 
Now it is night, or now 'tis day: 
So captivate her sense, so blind her eye, 
That still she love me, yet she ne'er knew why. 

Thou who dost wound us with such art, 

We see no blood drop from the heart, 

And, subtly cruel, leave no sign 

To tell the blow or hand was thine; 

O gently, gently wound my fair, that she 

May thence believe the wound did come from thee! 



AN EPIGRAM. 
God's noblest works are honest men, 

Says Pope's instructive line; 
To make a lovely woman, then, 

Must surely be divine. 



£2 SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

CUPID, if storying legends tell aright, 

Once fram'd a rich elixir of delight — 

A chalice o'er love-kindled flames he fixed, 

And in it nectar and ambrosia mixed: 

With these, the magic dews which evening brings, 

Brush'd from the Idalian star by fairy wings, 

Each tender pledge of sacred faith he join'd, 

Each gentler pleasure of the unspotted mind — 

Day-dreams, whose tints with sportive brightness glow, 

And Hope, the blameless parasite of Woe. 

The eyeless chemist heard the process rise, 

The steamy chalice bubbled up in sighs, 

Sweet sounds transpir'd, as when the enamor'd dove 

Pours the soft murmuring of responsive love. 

The finish'd work might Envy vainly blame, 

And " Kisses" was the precious compound's name. 

With half the god his Cyprian mother blest, 

And breath'd on Saras lovelier lips the rest. 

COLERIDGE. 



Ye tradeful merchants, that with weary toil 

Do seek most precious things to make your gain, 

And both the Indies of their treasures spoil, 

What need for you to seek so far in vain? 

For lo! my love doth in herself contain 

Ail this world's riches, that may far be found. 

If sapphires, lo! her eyes be sapphires plain; 

If rubies, lo! her lips be rubies round; 

If pearls, her teeth be pearls both pure and sound; 

If ivory, her forehead ivory ween; 

If gold, her locks are finest gold on ground; 

If silver, her fair hands are silver sheen; 

But that which fairest is but few behold, 

Her mind adorn'd with virtues manifold. 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 14 

There is an Indian tree, they say, 

Whose timid flow'r avoids the light, 
Concealing thus from tell-tale day 

The beauties it unfolds by night. 
So many a thought may hidden lie, 

So sighs unbreath'd by day may be, 
Which, freely, 'neath the starry sky 
In secret faith I give to thee: — 
The love that strays 
Thro* pleasure's ways 
Is like the flow'rs that love the light; 
But love that's deep, 
And faith will keep, 
Is like the flower that blooms at night. 

SAMUEL LOVER. 



When Cupid did his grandsire Jove entreat 
To form some beauty by a new receipt, 
Jove sent, and found far in a country scene, 
Truth, innocence, good-nature, look serene, 
From which ingredients first the dext'rous boy 
Pick'd the demure, the awkward, and the coy. 
The graces from the court did next provide 
Breeding, and wit, and air, and stately pride; 
These Venus cleans'd from every spurious grain 
Of vice, coquet, affected, pert and vain; 
Jove mix'd these ingredients in proportions true, 
Then call'd the happy composition — You! 

Adapted from SWIFT. 



Silence in love betrays more woe 
Than words, though ne'er so witty; 

A beggar that is dumb, you know, 
Deserves a double pity. 

SIR HENRY WOTTON. 



1M SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

As half in shade, and half in sun, 

This world along its path advances, 
Oh! may that side the sun shines on 

Be all that ever meets thy glances; 
May Time, who casts his blight on all, 

And daily dooms some joy to death, 
On thee let years so gently fall 

They shall not crush one flower beneath. 

MOORE. 

Hope is the lover's staff: 

Walk thou with that, 

And manage it against despairing thought. 

SHAKESPEARE. 

This is the charm, by sages often told, 
Converting all it touches into gold; 
Content can soothe, where'er by fortune placed, 
Can rear a garden in a desert waste. 

HENRY KIRKE WHITE. 



O grant me, Heav'n, a middle state, 
Neither too humble nor too great; 
More than enough for nature's ends, 
With something left to treat my friends. 

MALLET. 

Duty has pleasures with -Ho satiety. 

Duties fulfilled are always pleasures to the memory. 

Duty makes pleasure doubly sweet by contrast. 

HALIBURTON. 

Contentment is a pearl of great price, and whoever 
procures it at the expense of ten thousand desires, makes a 
wise and happy purchase. 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 145 

Faith is the star that gleams above, 
Hope is the flower that buds below; 

Twin tokens of celestial love 

That out from Nature's bosom grow; 

And still alike, in sky, on sod, 

That star and blossom ever point to God. 

KENT. 

Longest joys won't last forever — 

Make the most of every day; 
Youth and beauty Time will sever, 

But Content hath no decay. 



There's not a wind but whispers of thy name, 
And not a flower that grows beneath the moon 
But in its hues and fragrance tells a tale 
Of thee, my love. 



BARRY CORNWALL. 



There is a jewel which no Indian mine can buy, 

No chemic art can counterfeit; 

It makes men rich in greatest poverty, 

Makes water wine, turns wooden cups to gold, 

The homely whistle to sweet music's strain; 

Seldom it comes — to few from Heaven sent — 

That much in little — all in nought — Content. 



THOU'RT fairer than the poets can express, 
Or happy painters fancy when they love. 

OTWAY. 

A thing of beauty is a joy forever; 
Its loveliness increases; it will never 
Pass into nothingness. 



146 SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

Not purple violets in the early spring- 
Such graceful sweets, such tender beauties bring-; 
The orient blush which does thy cheeks adorn, 
Makes coral pale — vies with the rosy morn. 



LEE. 



What will it matter, 

By and by, 
Whether our path below was bright, 
Whether it shone through dark or light- 
Under a gray or golden sky — 
What will it matter, 

By and by? 



Ye flowers that droop, forsaken by the spring; 
Ye birds that, forsaken by the summer, cease to sing; 
Ye trees that fade when autumn heats remove, 
Say, is not Absence death to those who love? 



Well chosen friendship, the most noble 
Of virtues, all our joys makes double, 
And into halves divides our trouble. 



Thick waters show no images of things; 

Friends are each other's mirrors, and should be 
Clearer than crystal or the mountain spring-s, 

And free from cloud, design, or flattery. 
For vulgar souls no part of friendship share; 
Poets and friends are born to what they are. 

CATHERINE PHILLIPS. 



Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; 
And every little absence is an age. 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 147 

Friendship, which, once determined, never swerves; 
Weighs ere it trusts, but weighs not ere it serves; 
And soft-eyed Pity, and Forgiveness bland, 
And melting Charity, with open hand ; 
And artless Love, believing and believed; 
And honest Confidence, which ne'er deceived; 
And Mercy, stretching out ere Want can speak, 
To wipe the tear which stains Affliction's cheek. 

HANNAH MORE. 

Small service is true service where it lasts: 

Of friends, however, scorn not one: 
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts, 

Protects the lingering dew-drop from the sun. 



Accomplishments are native to her mind, 
Like precious pearls within a clasping shell, 

And winning grace her every act refined, 
Like sunshine, shedding beauty where it fell. 

MRS. HALE. 



By every hope that earthward clings, 

By faith that mounts on angel-wings, 

By dreams that make night-shadows bright, 

And truths that turn our day to night, 

By childhood's smile and manhood's tear, 

By pleasure's day and sorrow's year, 

By all the strains that fancy sings, 

And pangs that time so surely brings, 

For joy or grief, for hope or fear, 

For all hereafter as for here, 

In peace or strife, in storm or shine, 

My soul is wedded unto thine! 



148 SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS 

Love is to my impassion'd soul 
Not, as with others, a mere part 
Of its existence; but the whole — 
The very life-breath of my heart. 



Die when you will, you need not wear 
At heaven's court a form more fair 

Than beauty here on earth has given, 
Keep but the lovely looks we see — 
The voice we hear — and you will be 

An angel ready made for heaven. 



In Christian world Mary the garland wears! 

Rebecca sweetens on a Hebrew ear; 

Quakers for pure Priscilla are more clear; 

And the light Gaul by amorous Ninon swears. 

Among the lesser lights how Lucy shines! 

What air of fragrance Rosamond throws round! 

How like a hymn doth sweet Cecilia sound! 

Of Marthas and of Abigails few lines 

Have bragg'd in verse. Of coarsest household stuff 

Should homely Joan be fashion'd. But can 

You Barbara resist, or Marian? 

And is not Clare for love excuse enough? 

Yet, by my faith in numbers, I profess 

These all than Saxon Edith please me less. 

CHARLES LAMB. 



Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of 
thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; 
whereas that which is founded on true Virtue, will always 
continue. 

DRYDEN. 



SELECTED VERSES EOR ALBUMS. 149 

There is a bud in life's dark wilderness, 

Whose beauties charm, whose fragrance soothes distress; 

There is a beam in life's o'erclouded sky, 

That gilds the starting tear it cannot dry: 

That flower, that lonely beam, on Eden's grove 

Shed the full sweets and heavenly light of love. 

Alas! that aught so fair could lead astray 

Man's wavering foot from duty's thornless way. 

Yet, lovely Woman! yet thy winning smile, 

That caused our cares, can every care beguile; 

And thy soft hand amid the maze of ill 

Can rear one blissful bower of Eden still. 

BERESFORD. 



Doubt thou the stars are fire; 

Doubt that the sun doth move; 
Doubt Truth to be a liar; 

But never doubt I love! 

SHAKESPEARE. 



So like the chances are of Love and War, 
That they alone in this distinguished are: 
In Love, the victors from the vanquished fly — 
They fly that wound, and they pursue that die. 

WALLER. 



I KNOW a passion still more deeply charming 
Than fever'd youth e'er felt; and that is Love, 
By long experience mellow'd into Friendship. 
How far beyond that froward child of fancy! 
With beauty pleased awhile, anon disgusted, 
Seeking some other toy; how far more noble 
Is that bright offspring of unchanging reason, 
That fonder grows with age, and charms forever. 

THOMSON. 



150 SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

For me I'm woman's slave confessed — 
Without her, hopeless and unblest; 
And so are all, gainsay who can, 
For what would be the life of man, 
If left in desert or in isle, 
Unlighted up by beauty's smile? 
Even tho' he boasted monarch's name, 
And o'er his own sex reign 'd supreme, 
With thousands bending to his sway, 
If lovely Woman were away, 
What were his life? What could it be? 
A vapor on a shoreless sea; 
A troubled cloud in darkness toss'd, 
Amongst the waste of waters lost; 
A ship deserted in the gale, 
Without a steersman or a sail, 
A star, or beacon-light before, 
Or hope of haven evermore; 
A thing without a human tie, 
Unloved to live, — unwept to die. 



Oh, Woman! lovely Woman! Nature made thee 
To temper man; we had been brutes without you! 
Angels are painted fair, to look like you; 
There's in you all that we believe of heaven; 
Amazing brightness, purity, and truth 
Eternal joy, and everlasting love! 



Love! What a volume in a word! an ocean in a tear! 
A seventh heaven in a glance! a whirlwind in a sigh! 
The lightning in a touch — a millennium in a moment! 
What concentrated joy, or woe, in blest or blighted lovt 

TUPPER. 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 151 

THE changeful sand doth only know 

The shallow tide and latest; 
The rocks have marked its highest flow, 

The deepest and the greatest: 
And deeper still the flood-marks grow; — 

So, since the hour I met thee, 
The more the tide of time doth flow, 

The less can I forget thee! 

SAMUEL LOVER. 



I have seen the wild flowers springing, 

In wood, and field, and glen, 
Where a thousand birds were singing, 

And my thoughts were of thee then; 
For there's nothing gladsome round me, 

Or beautiful to see, 
Since thy beauty's spell has bound me, 

But is eloquent of thee. 

RICHARD HOWITT. 



The sunshine of the heart be mine, 

That beams a charm around; 
Where'er it sheds its ray divine, 

Is all enchanted ground! 
No fiend of care may enter there, 

Tho' Fate employ her art:-^- 
Her power, tho' mighty, bows to thine, 

Bright sunshine of the heart! 

SAMUEL LOVER. 



Oh, fairest of creation! last and best 
Of all God's works! creature in whom excelled 
Whatever can to sight or thought be form'd 
Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet! 

MILTON. 



152 SELECTED VERSES EOR ALBUMS. 

I HAVE heard of reasons manifold 
Why Love must needs be blind; 

But this the best of all I hold— 
His eyes are in his mind. 

What outward form and feature are 

He guesseth but in part; 
But what within is good and fair 

He seeth with the heart. 

S. T. COLERIDGE. 



Thou sleep'st while the eyes of the planets are watching, 

Regardless of love and of me. 
I sleep: but my dreams, at thy lineaments catching, 

Present me with nothing but thee. 

Thou art chang'd, while the color of night changes not 

Like the fading allurements of day; 
I am changed, for all beauty to me seems a blot 

While the joy of my heart is away. 

Erom the Arabic of TOGRAI. 



Ask the poor pilgrim on this rude world cast, 
His grizzled locks distorted in the blast; 
Ask him what accent soothes, what hand bestows 
The cordial bev'rage, garment and repose, 
O, he will dart a spark of ancient flame, 
And clasp his tremulous hands, and Woman name. 

Peruse the sacred volume; Him who died 
Her kiss betray'd not, nor her tongue denied, 
While even the Apostle left Him to His doom, 
She linger d round His cross and watched His tomb. 

BARRETT. 



Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two 
persons to promote the good and happiness of each other. 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 153 

Ch, Woman! Woman! thou art form'd to bless 
The heart of restless man, to chase his care, 

And charm existence by thy loveliness; 

Bright as the sunbeam, as the morning fair, 

If but thy foot fall on a wilderness 

Flowers spring and. shed their roseate blossoms there, 

Shrouding the thorns that in thy pathway rise, 

And scattering o'er it hues of Paradise. 



The light that beams from Woman's eye, 

^.nd sparkles through her tear, 
Responds to that impassion'd sigh 

Which love delights to hear. 
'Tis the sweet language of the soul, 

On which a voice is hung, 
More eloquent than ever stole 

From saint's or poet's tongue. 



Woman's truth and woman's love 

Trusting ever, 

Faithless never, 
Blest on earth, is blest above. 

Ministering oft in sorrow's hour, 

Loving truly, 

Fondly, duly 
Proving e'er affection's power. 

Ne'er forgetting, ne'er forgot; 

Richest treasures, 

Joyful pleasures 
Ever be her happy lot. 



The light of friendship, like phosphorus, is seen most 
plainly when all around is dark. 



154 SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

Lives there the man too cold to prove 
The joys of Friendship and of Love? 
Then let him die; when these are fled, 
Scarce do we differ from the dead. 



Ye are stars of the night, ye are gems of the morn, 
Ye are dewdrops whose lustre illumines the thorn; 
And rayless that night is, that morning unblest, 
When no beams in your eye light up peace in the breast. 
And the sharp thorn of sorrow sinks deep in the heart, 
Till the sweet lip of Woman assuages the smart; 
'Tis hers o'er the couch of misfortune to bend, 
In fondness a lover, in firmness a friend; 
And prosperity's hour, be it ever confesse*d, 
From Woman receives both refinement and zest; 
And adorn'd by the bays or enwreath'd with the willow, 
Her smile is our meed, and her bosom our pillow. 



Friend after friend departs; 

Who hath not lost a friend? 
There is no union here of hearts 

That finds not here an end. 
Were this frail world our only rest, 
Living or dying, none were blest. 

Thus star by star declines, 

Till all are passed away, 
As morning high and higher shines 

To pure and perfect day; 
Nor sink those stars in empty night, 
They lose themselves in heaven's own light. 

MONTGOMERY. 



Love is a subject to himself alone, 

And knows no other empire than his own. 

LANSDOWNE. 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 155 

Beware of sudden friendship; 'tis a flower 
That thrives but in the sun; its bud is, fair, 
And it may blossom in the summer hour, 
But winter's withering tempests will not bear. 
True Friendship is a tree, whose lasting strength 
Is slow of growth, but proves, whate'er befall, 
Through life our hope and haven, and at length 
Yields but to death — the power that conquers all. 



A pepper-CORN is very small, but seasons every dinner 
More than all other condiments, although 'tis sprinkled thin- 
ner; 
Just so a little Woman is, if Love will let you win her — 
There's not a joy in all the world you will not find within 
her. 

And as within the little rose you find the richest dyes, 
And in a little grain of gold much price and value lies, 
As from a little balsam much odor doth arise, 
So in a little Woman there's a taste of paradise. 

From the Spanish of DE HITA. 



Yes! Love indeed is light from heaven, 
A spark of that immortal fire 

With angels shared — to mortals given, 
To lift from earth our low desire. 

Devotion wafts the mind above, 

But heaven itself descends in love; 

A feeling from the Godhead caught, 

To wean from self each sordid thought; 

A ray of Him who formed the whole; 

A glory circling round the soul. 



Rare is true love; true Friendship is still rarer. 



156 SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS, 

I hold it true, whate'er befall— 
, I feel it when I sorrow most — 

Tis better to have loved and lost, 
Than never to have loved at all. 

TENNYSON. 

OUR grandsire, ere of Eve possess'd, 

Alone, and e'en in Paradise unblest, 

With mournful looks the blissful scene surveyed, 

And wandered in the solitary shade; 

The Maker saw, took pity, and bestowed 

Woman, the last, the best reserved of God. 



To Woman, whose best books are human hearts, 
Wise Heaven a genius less profound imparts; 
His awful — hers is lovely; his should tell 
How thunderbolts, and hers how roses fell. 
Her rapid mind decides while his debates; 
She feels a truth that he but calculates. 
He, provident, averts approaching ill; 
She snatches present good with ready skill. 
That active perseverance his, which gains; 
And hers, that passive patience which sustains. 

BARRETT. 



There is a comfort in the strength of Love; 
'Twill make a thing endurable, which else 
Would overset the brain, or break the heart. 

WORDSWORTH. 



The consciousness of being loved softens the keenest 
pang, even at the moment of parting; yea, even the eternal 
farewell is robbed of half its bitterness when uttered in 
accents that breathe Love to the last sigh. 

ADDISON. 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 157 

The dart of Love was feather'd first 

From Folly's wing, they say, 
Until he tried his shaft to shoot 

In Beauty's heart one day; 
He miss'd the maid so oft, 'tis said, 

His aim became untrue, 
And Beauty laugh'd, as his last shaft 

He from his quiver drew; 
" In vain," said she, " you shoot at me, 

You little spiteful thing — 
The feather on your shaft I scorn, 

When pluck'd from Folly's wing." 

But Cupid soon fresh arrows found 

And fitted to his string, 
And each new shaft he feather'd from 

His own bright glossy wing; 
He shot until no plume was left 

To waft him to the sky, 
And Beauty smil'd upon the child, 

When he no more could fly; 
" Now, Cupid, I am thine," she said, 
" Leave off thy archer play, 
For Beauty yields — when she is sure 

Love will not fly away." 

SAMUEL LOVER. 



Friendship is power and riches all to me; 
Friendship's another element of life; 
Water and fire not of more general use~ 
To the support and comfort of the world 
Than Friendship to the being of my joy: 
I would do everything to serve a friend. 



He that doeth a base thing in zeal for his friend, burns 
the golden thread that ties their hearts together. 



158 SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. , 

Farewell, oh farewell, but whenever you give 

A thought to the days that are gone, 
Of the bright sunny things that in memory live 

Let a thought of the writer be one. 
The hope is but humble — he asks but a share, 

But a part of thy memories to be, 
While no future to him can in rapture compare 

To the past, made enchanting by thee. 

SAMUEL LOVER. 

" I WILL not say I'd give the world 

To win those charms divine; 
I will not say I'd give the world — 

The world it is not mine. 
The vow that's made thy love to win 

In simple truth shall be; 
My heart is all I have to give, 

And give that all to thee." 

But while I knelt at beauty's shrine, 

And love's devotion paid, 
I felt 'twas but an empty vow 

That passion's pilgrim made; 
For while, in raptur'd gazing lost, 

To give my heart I swore, 
One glance from her soon made me feel 

My heart was mine no more. 

SAMUEL LOVER. 



The joys of life are heightened by a friend; 
The woes of life are lessened by a friend; 
In all the cares of life, we by a friend 
Assistance find — who'd be without a friend? 

WANDESFORD. 



Let Friendship creep gently to a height. If it rush to it, 
it may soon run itself out of breath. 



SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 159 

We bask in Friendship's smile, 
And pure affection glows with gladdening light, 
As life's extending path is often bright, 

And beautiful the while. 

But if a stormy wave 
Break on our path, and change the pleasing scene, 
Disturb the sea of life, so late serene, 

Friendship may find a grave. 

Such is the changeless love, 
The pure affection of that lasting Friend 
Whose smile imparts a joy that ne'er shall end — 

A boon from Heaven above; 

Whatever be our lot, 
Sickness or health, or trial's darkest hour; 
If friends forsake, and tempests o'er us lower, 

That Friend forsaketh not. 

S. DRYDEN PHELPS. 



There are ten thousand tones and signs 

We hear and see, but none defines — 

Involuntary sparks of thought 

Which strike from out the heart o'erwrought, 

And form a strange intelligence 

Alike mysterious and intense; 

Which link the burning chain that binds, 

Without their will, young hearts and minds, 

Conveying, as the electric wire, 

We know not how, the absorbing fire. 

BYRON. 



Know that, if you have a friend, you ought to visit him 
often. The road is grown over with grass, the bushes 
quickly spread over it, if it be not constantly traveled. 



160 SELECTED VERSES FOR ALBUMS. 

Why should I blush to own I love ? 
'Tis Love that rules the realms above. 
Why. should I blush to say to all 
That virtue holds my heart in thrall? 

Why should I seek the thickest shade, 
Lest Love's dear secret be betrayed? 
Why the stern brow deceitful move, 
When I am languishing with love? 

Is it a weakness thus to dwell 
On passion that I dare not tell? 
Such weakness I would ever prove. 
'Tis painful, but 'tis sweet to love! 

HENRY KIRKE WHITE. 



Love is not love 
Which alters when it alteration finds, 
Or bends with the remover to remove: 
O no! it is an ever fixed mark, 
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; 
It is the star to every wandering bark, 
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. 

SHAKESPEARE. 

When two friends part, they should lock up one another's 
secrets, and interchange their keys. 



Purchase not friends by gifts. When thou ceasest to 
give, such will cease to love. 



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CHECKERS AND CHESS. 

Spayth's American Draught Player ; or, The Theory and 

Practice of the Scientific Game of Checkers. Simplified and Illustrated 
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Full instructions— Draught Board Numbered— Names of the Games, and 
how formed— The " Theory of the Move and its Changes" practically ex- 
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Spayth's Game of Draughts. By Henry Spayth. This book 

is designed as a supplement to the author's first -work, "The American 
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It is profusely illustrated with diagrams of ingenious stratagems, curious 
positions and perplexing problems, and contains a great variety of interest- 
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Cloth, gilt side 75 cts. 

Scattergood's Game of Draughts, or Checkers, Simplified 

arid Explained. "With practical Diagrams and Illustrations, together with a 
Checker- Board, numbered and printed in red. Containing the Eighteen 
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authors, with some never before published. By D. Scattergood. 
Bouad in cloth, with flexible covers 50 cts, 

Harache's Manual of Chess. Containing a description ©f the 

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Games for Beginners, Fifty Openings of Games, giving all the latest dis- 
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Endings of Games, showing easiest Tvays of effecting Checkmate, Thirty- 
six ingenious Diagram Problems, and sixteen curious Chess Stratagems, 
being one of the best Books for Beginners eve:.- putaished. By N. Maraehe. 

Bound in boards, cloth back 60 ct3. 

Bound in cloth, gilt side 75 Cts. 

DICK & FITZG-ERALD, Publishers, 

Box £975. NEW YORK. 



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READINGS AND ^pTATlffliT" 

Karnaugh's Juvenile Speaker. For very Little Bovs 

and txiri* Containing short "and easily-learned Seeches and IMalwrue" 
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Dick's Series of Hesitations and Headings, 2Io$ 1 tol Com- 
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for Recitation or Heading. Edited bjwi^ml"' SghSShS^PSJ 

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tions and Evening Parties. 18u pages, paper covers.. - ! j> cte. 

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Spencer's Book of Comic Speeches and Humorous Eecita- 
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Bound in boards, cloth back..* ; 5q cts [ 

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138 pages, paper covers .30 cts. 

Bound in boards, with cloth back.... 50 cts, 

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and Laughable Interludes. 1 80 pages, paper covers 30 cts. 

Bound in boards, with clota back 50 Cts, 

Brndder Bones' Book of Stranp Speeches and Burlesque 

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Comic Recitations. 1 88 pages, paper covers 30 ets. 

Bound in boards, illuminated 50 CtS. 

Martine's Droll Dialogues and Lansrhable Eecitations. A 

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and Spirited Stump Speeches. " 1 88 pages, paper covers. 30 ets. 

Bound in boards, with cloth back 50 ets. 

WE WILL SEND A CATALOGUE containing a complete list 
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DICK & FITZGERALD, Publishers, 

Box 39T5, JIEW ¥OBl£* 



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Tlie Dialogues contained in these books are all entirely original; 
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HcBri&e's Comic Dialogues. A collection of twenty-three 

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HcBride's All Kinds of Dialogues. A collection of twenty- 

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Holmes' Very Little Dialogues for Very Little Folks. Con- 
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176 pages, paper covers 30 Cts. 

Bound in boards 50 cts. 

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WE WILL SEND A CATALOGUE free to any address, con- 
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DICK & FITZGERALD, Publishers, 

Box39T5. SBW TOS55. 



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AMATEUR THEATRICALS. 

All the plays in 1lie following excellent books are especially de- 
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Burton's Amateur Actor. A complete grade to Private Theat- 
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Stage; with rules and suggestions for mounting, rehearsing anu.peri'orm- 
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with Prologues, Epilogues, etc. 16mo, illuminated paper cover SO CK. 

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Parlor Theatricals; or, Winter Evenings' Entertainment. 

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Amateurs. Illustrated with engravings. Paper covers 30 CtS. 

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Frost's Book of Tableaux and Shadow Pantomimes. A 

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Frost's Amateur Theatricals. A collection of eight original 

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Dick's Original Album Verses and Acrostics. 

Containing Original Verses 



For Album Dedications; 
To Accompany Philopena Forfeits; 
For Congratulation; 
For Valentines in General, and all 
Trades and Profesi ' 



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To Accompany Bouquets; 
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It contains also Two Hundred and Eighteen Original Acrostic Verses, the 
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primary object of this book is to furnish entirely fresh and unhackneyed 
matter for all who may be called upon to fill and adorn a page in a Lady's 
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Bound in full cloth " . . 75 gjg. 

The Debater, Chairman's Assistant, and 

Exiles of Order. A manual for Instruction and Reference in 
all matters pertaining to the Management of Public Meetings 
according to Parliamentary usages. It comprises : 



How to Form and Conduct all kinds of\ 
Associations and Clubs; 

How to Organize and Arrange Public 
Meetings, Celebrations, Dinners, Pic- 
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Forms for Constitutions of Lyceums or 
Institutes, Literary and other Societies; 

The Powers and Duties of Officers, with 
Forms for Treasurers' , Secretaries', 
and other Official Reports; 

The Formation and Didies of Commit- 
tees; 



Rules of Order, and Order of Business, 
with Mode of Procedure in all Cases. 

How to draft Resolutions and other 
Written Business; 

A Model Debate, introducing the. greatest 
possible variety of points of order, with 
correct Decisions by the Chairman; 

The Rules of Order, in Tabular Form, 
for instant reference in all Cases of 
Doubt that may arise, enabling a Chair- 
man to decide on all points at a 
glance. 

The Work is divided into different Sections, for the purpose of Consecutive 
Instruction as well as Ready Reference, and includes all Decisions and 

Rulings up to the present day. Paper covers 30 cts. 

Bound in boards, cloth back 50 Cts. 

Dick's Ethiopian Scenes, Variety Sketches 

and Stump Speeches. Containing End-Men's Jokes, 

Negro Interludes and Farces; Dialect Sketches and Eccentricities; 

Fresh Dialogues for Interlocutor and Dialogues and Repartee for Interlocutor 

Banjo; ' and Bones; 

New Stump Speeches; Quaint Burlesque Sermons; 

Humorous Lectures; Jokes, Quips and Gags. 

It includes a number of Amusing Scenes and K"egro Acts, and is 
fall of the side-splitting vagaries of the best Minstrel Troupes 
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Sketches in the Xegro Dialect. 178 pages, paper covers. . 30 cts. 
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Dick's Dutch, French and Yankee Dialect 

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peculiar dialect. To those who make Dialect Recitations a 
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170 pages, paper cover * 30 cts. 

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Dick's Irish Dialect Recitations. A carefully 

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Worcester's Letter-Writer and Book of Busi- 
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Bills of Exchange, Promissory Sotes, Executors' and Adminis- 
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Harp of a Thousand Sorbins; or, Laughter for a Life-time. 

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Chips from Uncle Sam's Jack-Knife. Illustrated with over 

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Fox's Ethiopian Comicalities. Containing Strange Sayings, 

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Black Wit and Barky Conversations. By Charles "White. 

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How to Conduct a Debate. A Series of Complete Debates, 

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Barber's American Book of Beady-Made Speeches. Con- 
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appropriate replies to each. Including: 

Off-Hand Speeches on a Variety qf 

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Preambles and Resolutions of Con- 
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Day's American Ready-Reckoner. By B. H. Day. This 

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The Art and Etiquette of Making Love. A Manual of Love, 

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How to act before and after a proposal, 

How to accept or reject a proposal, 



How to break of an engagement. 
How to act after an engagement, 
How to act as bridesmaid or grooms- 

Hoiv the etiquette of a wedding and the 
after reception should be observed, 



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Frank Converse's Complete Banjo Instructor Without a 

Master. Containing a choice'eollection of Banjo Solos and Hornpipes."Walk 
Arounds, Reels and -Jigs, Songs and Banjo Stories, progressively arranged 
and plainly explained, enabling the learner to become a proficient banjoist 

\ without the aid of a teacher. The necessary explanations accompany each 
tune, and are placed under the notes on each page, plainly showing the 
string required, the finger to be used for stopping it, the manner of striking, 
and the number of times it must be sounded. The Instructor is illustrated 
with diagrams and explanatory symbols. 100 pages. Bound in boards, 
cloth back 5 cts. 

Hard Words Made Easy. Rules for Pronunciation and Accent ; 
with instructions how to pronounce French, Italian, German, Spanish, and 
other foreign names 12 CES. 



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Karey & Knowlson's Complete Horse Tamer and Farrier. 

A New and Improved Edition, containing: Mr. Karey 's Whole Secret o! 
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Young Colts, and Breaking them to the Saddle, to Harness and the Sulky' 
Kules for Selecting a Good Horse, and for Feeding Horses. Also the Com- 
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How to Amuse an Evening Party, a Complete collection of 

Home Recreations. Profusely Illustrated with over Two Hundred fine 
wood-cuts, containing Round Games and Forfeit Games. Parlor Ma<dc and 
Curious Puzzles, Comic Diversions and Parlor Tricks, Scientific Recreations 
and Evening Amusements. A young man with this volume may render him- 
self the beau, ideal of a delightful companion at every party and win the 
hearts of all the ladies, by his powers of entertainment. Bound in orna- 
mental paper covers qq ctg 

Bound in boards, with cloth back .".".'. '.'. '. * .' .' .* .* '. * V. 50 cts*. 

Frost's Laws and By-Laws of American Society. A Com- 
plete Treatise on Etiquette. Containing plain and Reliable Directions for 
Deportment m every Situation in Life, by S. A. Frost, author of "Frost's 
Letter-Writer." etc. This is a book of ready reference on the usages of So- 
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of deportment and polite behavior. Paper covers SO cts 

Bound in boards, with cloth back I 50 cts! 

Frost's Original Letter- "Writer. A complete collection of Orig- 
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with plain directions about everything connected with writing a letter. By 
S. A. Frost. To which is added a comprehensive Table of Synonyms, alone 
worth double the price asked for the book. We assure our readers that it is 
the best collection of letters ever published in this country; they are written 
in plain and natural language, and. elegant in style without being high-flown. 
Bound in boards, cloth back, with illuminated sides 50 Cts. 

North's Book of Love-Letters. "With directions how to write 

and when to use them, and 120 Specimen Letters, suitable for Lovers of any 
age and condition, and under all circumstances. Interspersed with the au- 
thor's comments thereon. The whole forming a convenient Hand-book of 
valuable information and counsel for the use of those who need friendly 
guidance and advice in matters of Love, Courtship and Marriage. By In- 

goldsby Xorth. Bound in boards „ . .50 cts. 

Bound in cloth 75 cts. 

How to Shine in Society ; or, The Science of Conversation. 

Containing the principles, laws and general usages of polite society, includ- 
ing easily applied hints and directions for commencing and sustaining an 
agreeable conversation, and for choosing topics appropriate to the time, 
place and company, thus affording immense assistance to the bashful and 
diffident. 16mo. Paper covers k5 Cts. 

The Poet's Companion. A Dictionary of all Allowable Khymes 
in the English Language. This gives the Perfect, the Imperfect and Allow- 
able Rhymes, and will enable you to ascertain to a certainty whether an^ 
word can be mated. It is invaluable to any one who desires to court tho 
Muses, and is used by some of the best writers in the country ^5 Cts. 

Mind Your Stops. Punctuation made plain, and Composition 
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Five Hundred French Phrases. A book giving all the French 

words and maxims in general use in writing the English language.. .12 Ct& 



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Sut Lovingood. Tarns spun by "A Nat'ral Born Dunfd Fool." 
Warped and Wove for Public Wear, by George W. Harris. Illustrated 
with eisrht fine full page engravings, from desigus by Howard. It would be 
difficult, we think, to cram a larger amount of pungent humor into 300 
pages than will be found in this really funny book. The Preface and Ded- 
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among the best specimens of broad burlesque to -which the genius of the 
ludicrous, for which the Southwest is so distinguished, has yet given birth. 
12mo, tinted paper, cloth, gilt edges $1:50 

Uncle Josh's Trunkflll of Fun. Containing a rich collection of 



Comical Stories, Cruel Sells, 

Side- Splitting Jokes, Humorous Poet- 
ry, 

Quaint Parodies, Burlesque tier* 
mons, 



New Conundrums, Mirth-Provoking 

SpeccJies, 
Curious Puzzles, Amusing Card 

Tricks, and 
Astonishing Feats of Parlor-Magic. 



This book is illustrated with nearly 200 funny engravings, and contains, in 
64 large octavo double-column pages, at least three times as much reading 
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The Strange and Wonderful Adventures of Bachelor 

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other Perils of a most extraordinary nature. The whole illustrated by about 
2u0 engravings 30 Ct3, 

The Laughable Adventures of Messrs. Brown, Jones and 

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The Mishans and Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. This 

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Jack Johnson's Jokes for the Jolly. A collection of Funny 

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the Drolleries of Border Life in the West. Yankee Peculiarities, Dutch 
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rous Narratives ; making altogether a Medley of Mirthful Morsels for the 
Melancholy that will drive away the blues, and. cause the most misanthropies 
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Snipsnaps and Snickering of Simon Snodr?rass. A collec, 

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Backwoods Boasting, Humors of Horse-trading, Xeirro Comicalities, Per- 
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and complete Medley of Wit and Humor. It is also full of funny engrav- 
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Madame Le Kormand's Fortune Teller. An entertaining 

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French Fortune Teller, who was frequently consulted by the Emperor 
Napoleon. A party of ladies and gentlemen may amuse "themselves for 
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but we assure our readers that it is the source of much mirth whenever in- 
troduced at a gathering of ladies and gentlemen. Bound in boards. 40 Cl3. 

The Fireside Magician; or, The Art of Natural Magic 

Made Easy. Being a scientific explanation of Legerdemain, Physical 
Amusement, Beoreative Chemistry, Diversion with Cards, and of all the 
mysteries of Mechanical Ma, trie, with feats as performed by Herr Alexander, 
Kobert Heller, Bobert Houdin, "The Wizard of the North," and distin- 
guished conjurors — comprising two hundred and fifty interesting mental and 
physical recreations, with explanatory engravings. 132 pages, paper. SO cts. 
Bound in boards, cloth back 50 Ct3. 

Howard's Book of Conundrums and Kiddles. Containing 

over 1,2J<J of the best Conundrums, Biddies, Enigmas, Ingenious Catches 
and Amusing Sells ever invented. This splendid collection'of curious para- 
doxes will afford the materialfor a never-ending feast of iun and amusement. 
Any person, with the assistance of this book, may take the lead in enter- 
taining a company, and keep tltem in roars of laughter for hours together. 

Paper covers 30 Cts. 

Bound in boards, cloth back 50 Ct3. 

Tne Parlor Magician; or, One Hundred Tricks for the 

Drawing-Room. Containing an extensive and miscellaneous collection of 
Conjuring and Legerdemain, embracing: Tricks with Dice, Dominoes and 
Cards; Trieks with Ribbons, Kings and Fruit; Tricks with Coin, Hand- 
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12L engravings. Paper covers 30 cts. 

I Bound in boards, with cloth back 50 Ct-3. 

Book of Riddles and 500 Home Amusements. Containing 

a curious collection of Biddies, Charades and Enigmas ; Rebuses, Anagrams • 
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Arithmetic, and Queer Sleights, and numerous other Entertaining Amuse- 
ments. Illustrated with GO engravings. Paper covers 30 cts. 

Bound in boards, with cloth back 50 Cts. 

The Book of Fireside Games. Containing an explanation of a \ 
variety of Witty, Sollicking, Entertaining and Innocent Games and Amus- 
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the thing for social gatherings, parties and pie-nies. Paper covers. .30 cts. 
Bound in boards, cloth back 50 Cts. 

The Book of 500 Curious Puzzles. Containing a large collec- 
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Numbers, Amusing Tricks in Geometry; illustrated with a great variety of 

Engravings. Paper covers 30 Cts. 

Bound in boards, with cloth back 50 Cts. 

Parlor Tricks with Cards. Containing explanations of all the 

Trick-; and Deceptions with Playing Cards ever invented. The whole illus- 
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Bound in boards, with cloth back.. 50 Cts. 



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Bay's Book-Keeping Without a Master. Containing the Ru- 

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Blank Books for Day's Book-Keeping. TTe have for sale 

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for Dav-Book in Single Eutrv, pages 15 to 25. No. 2— For Condensed Ac- 
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How to Learn the Sense of 3,000 French Words in one 

Hour. This ingenious little book actuady accomplishes all that its title 
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French language, forming a large proportion of those used in ordinary con- 
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mo, illuminated paper covers 25 CtS. 

How to Speak in Public; or, The Art of Extempore Oratory. 

A valuable manual for those who desire to become ready off-hand speakers; 
containing clear directions how to arrange ideas logically and quickly, in- 
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Live and L^am. A guide for all those who wish to speak and 
write correctly; particularly intended as a Book of Reference for the solu- 
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&c, containing examples of 1,000 mistakes of daily occurrence in speaking, 
writing and pronunciation. Cloth, 16mo, 216 pages 75 ct3. 

The Art of Dressing Well. By Miss S. A. Frost. This boot is 
designed for ladies and gentlemen who desire to make a favorable impres- 
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Bound iu boards, cloth back , 50 ct3. 

Thimm's French Self-Taught. A new system, on the most 

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every word. By this system the acquirement of the 'French Language is 
rendered less laborious aud more thorough than by any of the old methods. 
By Franz Thimm 25 c t 3% 

Thimm's German Self-Taught. Uniform with "French Self- 
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Thimm's Spanish. Seif-Tausrht. A book of self-instruction in 

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Thimm's Italian Self-Taught. Uniform in style and size with 
the three foregoing books. By Franz Thimm .25 ct§» 



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CARD AND OTHER GAMES. 

"Trump's" American Eoyle; or, Gentleman's Hand-Book 

of Games. This work contains an exhaustive treatise on Whist, by William 
Pole, E.B.S., and the rules for playing that game as laid down l>y the Hon. 
James Clay. It also contains clear descriptions of all the games played 
iu the United States, with the American rules for playing them; including 
Euchre, Bezique, Cribbage, All Pours, Loo, Poker, Brag, Piquet, Pedro 
Saucho, Femicide, Railroad Euchre, Jack Pots, Ecarte, Boston, Cassino, 
Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, Billiards, Bominoes, and a hundred other 
games. This work is designed as an American- authority in all games of 
skill and chance, and will settle any disputed point. It has been prepared 
with great care, and is not a re-hash of English games, but a live American 
book, expressly prepared for American players. The American Hoyle 
contains 5~>5 pages, is printed on fine white paper, bound in cloth, with extra 
gdk, side aMid beveled boards, and is profusely illustrated S2.00 

The Modern Pocket Hoyle. By " Trumps." Containing aU 

the games of skill and chance, as played in this country at the present time, 
being an "authority on all disputed points." This valuable manual is all orig- 
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the laws and complete directions for playing one hundred and eleven differ- 

erent games. ?&& pages, paper covers 50 CtS. 

Bound in boards, with cloth back 75 CtS. 

Bound iu cloth, gilt side aud back §>1.25 

Hoyle 's Games. -A complete Manual of the laws that govern ail 

games of skill and ebance, including Card Games, Chess, Checkers, Domi- 
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time), and all Field Games. Entirely original, or thoroughly revised from 

the latest and best American authorities. Paper covers 50 Cts. 

Boards % c & 

Cloth, gilt side fci.<erO 

Walker's Cribbage Made Easy. Being a new and complete 

Treatise on the Game in all varieties. By George Walker, Esq. A very 
comprehensive work on this Game. It contains over oOO examples of how 
to discard for your own and your adversary's crib. 
142 pages, bound in boards 0%) CX3 ' 

100 Tricks With Cards Exposed and Explained. By J.H. 

Green, the Reformed Gambler. This book exposes and explan i s , ah the 
Mysteries of the Gambling Tables. It is interesting not omy to those v lio 

play, but to those who do not. Paper covers *>u cxs. 

Bound in boards, with cloth back... ou eis * 

How Gamblers Win:, or, The Secrets of Advantage Play- 

i^o Exposed; "Beinjy a complete and scientific expose of the manner oi 
plavinn- all the various advantages in the various Card Games, as practiced 
by 'professional gamblers. This work is designed as a warning to seU-confc. 
dent card-players. Bound in boards, with cloth back 50 CtS. 

DICK & FITZGERALD, Publishers, 

Box 3975. NEW YORK. 



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Marline's Sensible letter-Writer. Being a comprehensive 

and complete Guide and Assistant for those who desire to carry on Episto- 
lary Correspondence ; containing a larire collection of model letters on the 
simplest matters of life, adapted to all ages and conditions — 



Letters of Courtesy, Friendship and 
Affection ,■ 

Letters of Condolence and Sympathy ; 

A Choice Collection of Love-Letters, 
for Every Situation in a Courtship ,■ 

Notes of Ceremony, Familiar Invita- 
tions, etc., together ivith Notes of 
Acceptance and Regret. 



Business Letters ; 

Applications for Employment, icich 
Letters of Recommendation and 
Answers to Advertisements ; 

Letters between Parents and Children; 

Letters of Friendly Counsel and Re- 
monstrance ; 

Letters soliciting Advice, Assistance 
and Friendly Favors ; 

The whole containing 300 Sensible Letters and Xotes. This is an invalua- 
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2j1 pages, bound in boards, cloth back 50 cts. 

Bound in cloth 75 Ct3. 

Martine's Hand-Book of Etiquette and Guide to True 

PolVteiie-S. A complete Manual for all those who desire to understand 
good breeding, the customs of good society, and to avoid incorrect and 
vulgar habits. Containing clear and comprehensive directions for correct 
manners, conversation, dress, introductions, rules for good behavior at 
Dinner Parties and the Table, with hints on carving and wine at table ; 
together with the Etiquette of the Ball and Assembly Room, Evening 
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Deportment in the street and when traveling. To which is added the Eti- 
quette of Courtship, Marriage, Domestic Duties and lifty-six rules to be ob- 
served in general society. By Arthur Martine. Bound in boards . .50 cts. 
Bound in cloth, gilt side's . . . ." r < 5 cts. 

Dick's Quadrille Call-Book and Ball-Boom Prompter. Con- 
taining clear directions how to call out the figures of every dance, with tlio 
quantity of music necessarv for each figure, and simple explanations of all 
the figures which occur in Plain and Eancy Quadrilles. This book gives 
plain and comprehensive instructions how to dance all the new and popular 
dances, fully describing 



The Opening March or Polonaise, 
Y arums Plaiii and Fancy Quadrilles, 
Waltz and Glide Quadrilles, 
Plain Lancers and Caledonians, 
Glide Lancers and Caledonians, 
Saratoga Lancers, 
The Parisian Varieties, 
The Prince Imperial Set, 
Social and Basket Quadrilles, 
Nine-Pin and Star Quadrilles, 
Gavotte and Minuet Quadrilles, 

AND OVER ONE HUNDREB FIGURES FOR THE "GERMAN;" 

To which is added a Sensible Guide to Etiquette and Proper Deportment in 
the Ball and Assembly lioom, besides seventy pages of dance music for the 
piano. 

Paper covers 50 cts. 

Bound in boards , 75 Cts 



March and Cheat Quadrilles, 
Favorite Jigs and Contra-Dances, 
Polka and Polka Rcdowa, 
Rcdo-wa and Redotva Waltz, 
Polka Mazourka and Old Style Waltz, 
Modern Plain Waltz and Glide, 
Boston Dip and Hop Waltz, 
Five-Step Waltz and Schottische, 
Yarsovienne and Zulma L Orientale, 
Galop and Deux Temps, 
Esmeralda, Sieilienne, Danish Dance, 



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Lola Moiitez' Arts of Beauty; or, Secrets of a Lady's 

Toilet. With hints to Gentlemen on the Art of Fascinating. Lola Montez 
here explains all the Arts employed by the celebrated beauties and fashion- 
able ladies in Paris and other cities of Europe, for the purpose of preserving 
their beauty and improving and developing their charms. The recipes are 
all clearly given, so that any person can understand them, and the -work em- 
braces the following subjects : 



A Soft and Abundant Head of Hair; 

Also, Hoio to Remedy Gray Hair; 

And harmless but effectual methods of 
removing Superfluous Hair and 
other blemishes, with interesting in- 
formation on these and kindred 
matters. 



How to obtain such desirable and in- 
dispensable attractions as A Hand- 

. some Form ; 

A Bright and Smooth Skin ; ^ 

A Beautiful Complexion ; 

Attractive Eyes, Mouth and Lips ; 

A Beautiful Hand, Foot and Ankle; 

A Well-trained Voice; 
Eluminated paper cover 25 Cts. 

Eillgrove's Ball -Boom Guide and Complete Bancing- 

I/laster. Containing a plain treatise on Etiquette and Deportment at Balls 
and Parties, with valuable hints on Dress and the Toilet, together with 
Full Explanations of the Rudiments, 
Terms, Figures and Steps used in 



Dancing; 

Including Clear and Precise Instruc- 
tions how to dance all kinds of Quad- 
rilles, Waltzes, Folkas, Redoivas, 



Reels, Round, Plain and Fancy 
Dances, so that any person may 
learn them without the aid of a 
Teacher;^ 
To which is added easy directions how 
to call out the Figures 



of every dance, and the amount of music required for each. Illustrated 
with 176 descriptive engravings. By T. Hillgrove, Professor of Dancing. 

Bound in cloth, with gilt side and back §1.00 

Bound in boards, with cloth back 75 cts. 

The Banjo, and How to Play it. Containing, in addition to 

trio elementary studies, a choice collection of Polkas, Waltzes, Solos, Schot- 
ti.sches. Songs', Hornpipes, Jigs, Reels, etc., with full explanations of both 
the '•Banio'" and "Guitar" stylos of execution, and designed ta impart a 
complete knowledge of the art of playing the Banjo practically, without the 
aid of a teacher. This work is arranged ou the progressive system, show- 
ing the learner how to play the first few notes of a tune, then the 
next notes, and soon, a small portion at a time, until he has mastered tha 
entire piece, every detail being as clearly and thoroughly explained as if he 
had a teacher at his elbow all the time. By Frank B. Converse, author of 
the "Banjo without a Master." 16mo, bound in boards, cloth back.. 50 Cts. 

Eow's Hational Wasres Tables. Shoeing at a glance the 

amount of wages from half an hour to sixty hours, at from *1 to 137 per 
week. Also from one-quarter of a dav to four weeks, at $ 1 to §37 per week. 
By Xelson Bow. Bv this book, which is particularly useful when part of a 
week, day or hour is lost, a large pav-roll can be made out in a few minutes, 
thus saving more time in making out one pay-roll than the cost of the book. 
Every em plover hiring help bv the hour, day or week, and every employee, 
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money he is entitled toon pay-day. Half bound 50 ets. 

Eow's Complete Fractional Ready-Reckoner. For buying 

and selling any kind of merchandise, giving the fractional parts of a pound, 
yard, etc., from one-quarter to one thousand, at any price from one-quarter 
of a cent to five dollars. By kelson Bow. 30mo, 23J pages, boards . . 50 Cts. 

Blunders in Behavior Corrected. A hook of Deportment for 

both Ladies and Genllemen. Bv means of this book you can learn the most 
difficult phases in Etiquette, or behavior in good society 12 CJ. 



Sent 1 ? rce off IPostage obi Receipt oi Price. 



The Biblical Beason Why. A Hand-Book fos 

Biblical Students, and a guide to family Scripture reading. Thia' 
■work gives reasons founded upon tUe Bible, and assigned by 
the most eminent Divines and Christian Philosophers, for the 
great and all absorbing events recorded in the History of tho 
Bible, the Life of our Saviour and the Acts of His Apostles. 
EXAMPLE. 



Why oxa the firs', patriarchs attain 
such extreme longevity 

Why was the term of life afterwards 
shortened . 

Why are there several manifest varia- 
tions in names. ;acts and dates, be- 
tween the books of Kings and Chron- 
icles ? 



Why U, thi. vook oj th irropheaes oj 
Isaiah a strong proof of the authen- 
ticity of the whole Bible ? 

Why did our Saviour receive the nams 
of Jesus'? 

Why did John the Baptist Hesitate to 
administer the rite of Baptism to 
Jesus ? 



This volume answers 1,493 simiiai questions. Beautifully illus- 
trated. Large 12nio, cloth, gilt side and back $1.50 

The Eeason Whys General Science, A care- 
ful collection of reasons for some thousands of things which, 
though generally known, are imperfejtly understood. A book 
for the million. This work assigns reasonc; for the thousands or 
things that daily fall under the eye of the intelligent observer, 
and of which he seeks a simple and clear explanation. 
EXAMPLE. 



Wliat develops electricity in the 

clouds? 
Why does deioform round drops upon 

the leaves of plants P 



WJiy does silver tarnish when exposed 

to light? 
Why do some colors fade, and others 

darken, when exposed to the run ? 
Why is the sky blue ? 
This volume answers 1,325 similar questions. 356 pages, bound 

in cloth, gilt, and embellished with a large number of wood- 
cuts, illustrating the various subjects treated of , .$1.50 

The Eeason Why: Natural History. Giving 

reasons for hundreds of interesting facts in connection with 
Zoology, and throwing a light upon the peculiar habits and in- 
stincts of the various orders of the Animal Kingdom. 

EXAMPLE. 

Why do sporting dogs make ivhat is 
termed " a point"? 

Why do birds often roost upon one leg? 

WJiy do frog* keep their mouths closed 
while breathing ? 

Why does the wren build several nests, 
but occupy only one ? 

This volume answers about 1,500 similar questions. 
Illustrated, cloth, gilt side and back $1,50 



Why has the linn such a large mane? 
Why does the otter, when hunting for 

fish, swim against the stream ? 
Why do dogs turn around two or three 

times before they lie down ? 
Wliy have flat fishes their upper sides 

dark, and their under sides white? 



Sent Free of Postage on Receipt ©f Price. 

The American Boy's Book of Sports and 

Games. -A- Repository of In and Out-door Amusements for 
Boys and Youths. Containing 600 large 12mo pages. Illus- 
trated with, nearly 700 engravings, designed by "White, Herrick, 
"Wen and Harvey, and engraved by 1ST. Orr. This is unquestion- 
ably the most attractive and valuable book of its kind ever 
issued in this or any other country. It was three years in pre- 
paration, and embraces all the sports and games that tend to de- 
velop the physical constitution, improve the mind and heart, and 
relieve the tedium of leisure hours, both in the parlor and the 
field. 



%) 




The engravings are in the first style of the art, and embrace 
eight full-page ornamental titles, and two large colored chromos, ] 
Illustrating the several departments of the work, beautifully I 
printed on tinted paper. The book is issued in the best style, 
being printed on fine sized paper, and handsomely bound. Extra 
cloth, gilt side and back, extra gold, beveled boards $2.00 

Jack Johnson's Jokes for the Jolly. A col- 
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Life in the West, Yankee Peculiarities, Dutch Blunders, French 
Sarcasms, Irish Wit and Humor, etc. 
Illustrated paper covers 25 Cts. 



Sent Free of 2*©s«age on IScccipt of fl*i«ic«;. 

"Trump's" American Hoyle ; or, Gentleman's 

Hand-Book of Games. This work contains an exhaustive 
treatise on Whist, by William Pole, F.K.S., and the rales for 
playing that game as laid down by the Hon. James Clay. It also 
contains clear descriptions of all the games played in the United 
States, with the American rales for playing them; including 
JSuchre, Bezique, Cribbage, Baccara, California Jack, Oassino, Chess, 
All Fours. Loo, Poker, Bray, Piquet, Checkers, Backaammou, liilliunl.s 
Pedro Sancho, PenuchU; Railroad Dominoes, and a hundred other 
Euchre, Jack Pots, Ecarte, Boston, games. 



4» 4° 


♦ 





This work is designed as an American authority in all games ot 
skill and chance, and will settle any disputed point. It has 
been prepared with great care, and is not a re-hash of English 
games, but a live American book, expressly prepared for Amer- 
ican players. The American Hoyle contains 525 pages, is 
printed on line wbite paper, bound in cloth, with extra gilt side 
and beveled boards, and is profusely illustrated $2.00 

Spayth's American Draught Player ; or, The 
Theory and Practice of the Scientific Game of Checkers, 

Simplified and Illustrated with Practical Diagrams. Containing 
upwards of 1,700 Games and Positions. By Henry Spayth. 
Fifth edition, with over two hundred Corrections and Im- 




provements. Containing : The Standard Laws of the Game— 
Full Instructions— Draught Board Numbered— Names of the 
Games, and how formed— The " Theory of the Move and its 
Changes" practically explained and illustrated with Diagrams — 
Playing Tables for Draught Clubs— New Systems of Numbering 
the Board— Prefixing Signs to the Variations — List of Draught 
Treatises and Publications chronologically arranged. 
Bound in cloth, gilt side and back $3.00 



Sent Free of JPosSstge on Uecoipt of IPrice. 

Sut LovingOOd. Yarns spun by "ANat'ral Born 

Dum'd Fool." Warped and Wove for Public "Wear by George 

i__ Wo Harris. Illustrated with eight fine fall page engravings, 




from designs by Howard. It would be difficult, we think, to 
cram a larger amount of pungent humor into 300 pages than will 
be found in this really funny book. The Preface and Dedication 
are models of sly simplicity, and the 24 Sketches which follow 
are among the best specimens of broad burlesque to which the 
genius of the ludicrous, for which the Southwest is so distir- 
guished, has yet given birth. Cloth, gilt edges $1.50 

How to Conduct a Debate. A Series of 

Complete Debates, 

Outlines of Delates, and 

Questions for Discussion. 
In the complete debates, the questions for discussion are denned, 
the debate formally opened, an array of brilliant arguments 
adduced on either side, and the debate closed according to paiv 
liamentary usages. The second part consists of questions for 
debate, with heads of arguments, for and against, given in a, 
condensed form for the speakers to enlarge upon to suit their 
own fancy. In addition to these are 

A Large Collection of Debatable Questions. 
The authorities to be referred to for information are given at the 
close of every debate. By Frederic Eowton. 

232 pages, paper 50 cts. 

Bound in boards,, cloth back 75 cts. 



Sent Free of Postage on Reeeipt of Pi-ice. 

The Secret Out; or, 1,000 Tricks with Cards, 

and Other Recreations. Illustrated with over 300 engravings. 
A book which explains all the Tricks and Deceptions with Play- 
ing Cards ever known, and gives, besides, a great many new 
ones. The whole being described so carefully, with engravings 
to illustrate them, that anybody can easily learn how to perform 
them. This work also contains 240 of the best Tricks of Leger- 
demain, in addition to the Card Tricks. 




SYNOPSIS OF C0XTE]s T TS. 



Part I. — Tricks with Cards performed 
by skillful Manipulation and Sleiifht 
of Rand. 

Part II. — Tricks performed by the aid 
of Memory, Mental Calculation and 
. the. Peculiar Arrangement of the 
Cards. 

Part IU. — Tricks with Cards per- 
formed by the aid of Confederacy 
and sheer Audacity. 

Part IY. — Tricks performed* by the 
aid of Ingenious Apparatus and 
Prepared Cards. 

Part V. — Tricks of Legerdemain, Con- 
juring, Sleight of Hand and other 
Fancies, commonly called White 
Magic. 



Part YI.— Tricks in White Magic, 
performed by the aid of Ingenious 
Contrivance and Simple Apparatus. 

Part TIL — Xatural Magic, or Recre- 
ations in Science, embracing Curious 
Amusement* in Magnetism, Mechan- 
ics, Acoustics, Chemistry, Hydrate- 
lies and Cptics. 

Part YIII. — A Curious Collection of 
Entertaining Experiments, Amus- 
ing Puzzles. Queer Sleights. Includ- 
ing the Celebrated Science of Second 
Sight, Recreations in Arithmetic, 
and Fireside Games for Family Pas- 
time, and, other Astonishing Scien- 
tific Paradoxes and Attractive 
Amusements. 



The Secret Out is, by all odds, the most curious book that has 
been published in many years, and lays bare the whole machinery 
of magic, and with a simplicity so perfect that nobody can fail 
to become a domestic magician in a week, with very little study 
and practice. Such is the unerring process of instruction adopted 
in this volume, that no reader can fail to succeed in executing 
every Trick, Experiment, Game, etc., set down, if he will at all 
devote his attention, in his leisure hours, to the subject ; and, 
as every trick with cards known will be found in this collection, 
it may be considered the only complete work on the subject ever 
published. 400 pages, bound in cloth, gilt $1.50 




027 249 999 8 








